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LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

SOCIALISM  A  SPIRITUAL 
SUNRISE 


BY 

BOUCK  WHITE 

Pcutor  of  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  CALL  OP  THE  CARPENTER,"  "THE 
CARPENTER  AND  THE  RICH  MAN,"  ETC. 


BOSTON:    RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

TORONTO:    THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 


Copyright,  1915,  by  Richard  G.  Badger 
All  rights  reserved 


W3g 


INTRODUCTION 

Bouck  White  was  born  in  Middleburg,  a  village  in  the 
Catskill  Mountains,  October  20,  1874.  His  father  was  a 
retired  merchant.  On  both  sides  he  came  from  work- 
ing class  stock;  his  paternal  grandfather  was  a  farmer, 
his  maternal  grandfather  a  blacksmith.  On  his  father's 
side  he  is  of  Scotch  and  English  descent ;  his  mother,  Mary 
Bouck,  was  Holland  Dutch. 

It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  charge  of  alien  blood 
brought  against  so  many  Socialists  here  in  America,  does 
not  apply  in  Bouck  White's  case.  He  not  only  traces  his 
ancestry  through  a  long  line  of  New  England's  strain,  but 
on  his  mother's  side  goes  back  through  many  years  of 
Dutch  ancestry  in  the  valleys  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Mo- 
hawk. Furthermore,  one  of  his  ancestors  in  the  primeval 
Catskill  woods  fell  in  love  with  an  Indian  maid  and  mar- 
ried her.  Therefore  there  is  a  strain  of  aboriginal  stock 
in  him.  In  the  person  of  this  ancestor  he  is  American  of 
the  Americans.  In  them  as  his  representative  he  stood 
on  Plymouth  Rock  and  welcomed  the  Pilgrims;  further 
back  still,  he  was  on  the  shores  of  San  Salvadorc  and  wel- 
comed Columbus  to  these  shores.  This  Indian  strain  in 
his  blood  perhaps  accounts  for  some  of  the  native  poetry 
in  his  composition;  a  poetry  not  so  much  in  the  faculty 
of  the  rhymester  as  in  that  gift  of  imagination  which  vivi- 
fies whatever  it  touches. 

The  Middleburg  of  his  birth  is  a  town  in  the  western 
foothills  of  the  Catskill  region,  a  typical  rural  center  en- 
vironed with  picturesque  mountains  and  yet  in  a  valley 
so  fertile  that  the  wealth  of  it  removed  his  boyhood  from 
the  most  pressing  stress,  and  gave  him  educational  oppor- 
tunities. He  was  graduated  from  the  high  school  in  that 


4  INTRODUCTION 

mountain  village;  and  later  from  Harvard  University  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  being  well  nigh  the  youngest 
in  the  class. 

While  in  college  he  trained  himself  for  a  career  in  jour- 
nalism. It  is  significant  to  bear  this  in  mind,  as  indicat- 
ing, back  in  that  formative  period,  the  natural  bend  of  his 
mind.  After  his  graduation,  following  up  this  plan,  he 
became  a  reporter  on  the  Springfield  Republican,  choosing 
a  paper  of  so  high  a  journalistic  character  because  of  the 
educational  opportunities  offered  thereby.  Nor  was  he 
mistaken  in  this.  He  makes  the  remark  that  he  counts 
that  year  of  daily  journalism  one  of  the  most  important 
in  all  the  years  of  his  mental  training  and  civic  discipline. 

It  was  while  in  Springfield  that  there  came  to  his  soul 
the  call  to  the  ministry.  He  had  previously  received  the 
religious  training  found  in  rural  districts  generally,  but 
was  without  any  special  bias  in  that  direction.  Calls  to 
the  ministry  from  an  unseen  Power,  are  supposed  to  be- 
long to  an  ancient  and  now  quite  overpast  day.  In  his 
case  that  notion  is  disproved.  The  call  that  came  to  him 
was  sudden,  unexpected,  and  of  almost  dramatic  intensity. 
It  had  in  it,  moreover,  a  number  of  features  that  were  un- 
welcome to  him.  There  had  come  to  him  the  temptation, 
and  from  the  worldly  point  of  view,  the  opportunity  of 
his  life:  a  successful  career  as  a  lawyer  for  a  great  cor- 
poration, wealth,  and  with  these  the  fulfillment  of  Love's 
young  dream,  all  were  his  for  the  taking.  But  when  he 
realized  that  this  meant  a  service,  not  to  protect  the  poor 
from  the  injustice  of  the  law,  but  to  protect  the  great  cor- 
poration from  paying  to  the  poor  what  they  would  justly 
receive  under  the  law,  he  made  his  final  choice,  and  decided 
to  serve  his  Master  in  the  ministry.  Yielding  to  that 
inner  Voice,  he  gave  up  also  his  career  in  journalism,  and 
took  up  his  ministerial  studies,  first  in  Boston  Theological 
Seminary,  and  later  in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in 
New  York  City. 

In  the  late  twenties  of  his  life,  while  at  the  latter  insti- 


INTRODUCTION  5 

tution,  he  had  a  missionary  field,  which  he  tended  during  his 
vacations,  in  the  Ramapo  Mountains  back  of  West  Point. 
Here  was  a  mountaineer  community  which  had  been  for- 
gotten by  the  tides  of  civilization  setting  in  on  every  side. 
Realizing  their  spiritual  and  social  needs,  he  stayed  with 
them  for  more  than  a  year  after  his  graduation,  living  in 
a  wood  chopper's  cottage,  in  a  clearing  in  the  forest  far 
from  railroads  and  quite  shut  in.  That  year  of  com- 
parative solitude,  following  his  life  in  daily  journalism 
and  in  study  at  Union  Seminary  in  the  heart  of  the  me- 
tropolis, deepened  his  life  appreciably.  From  there  he 
went  to  the  Thousand  Islands,  and  became  pastor  of  the 
Congregational  Church  of  the  Thousand  Islands  at  Clay- 
ton, New  York.  The  St.  Lawrence  River  people  are  much 
behind  in  the  march  of  progress,  and  Bouck  White,  be- 
cause of  his  exceedingly  advanced  ideas,  quickly  became 
a  conspicuous  figure  on  that  frontier  post.  He  organized 
the  Clayton  Boys'  Club.  It  had  what  would  be  known 
now  as  institutional  features,  added  to  his  regular  pas- 
torate. The  dwellers  thereabouts  were  astounded  to  see 
a  bowling  alley  put  into  the  basement  of  the  church,  along 
with  a  shower  bath,  a  printing  press,  a  library  and  other 
similar  features.  However,  the  people  in  the  summer  col- 
ony most  loyally  cooperated  with  him,  and  the  work  be- 
came a  pronounced  success. 

After  nearly  four  years  at  Clayton  he  returned  to  New 
York,  and  took  a  position  as  head  of  the  Men's  Social 
Service  department  in  Holy  Trinity  Episcopal  Church, 
Brooklyn.  Here  he  remained  five  years.  These  were  five 
years  of  intense  mental  activity,  and  of  spiritual  develop- 
ment. Until  this  experience  he  had  been  only  in  long 
range  contact  with  the  social  problem  in  our  great  cities. 
Now  he  saw  the  thing  at  first  hand.  The  tenement  dis- 
tricts of  the  metropolis,  with  their  alien  hordes  and  their 
unceasing  round  of  privation,  contrasting  so  sharply  as 
in  New  York,  with  rich,  broad  avenues  where  the  moneyed 
mighty  live  sumptuously,  gave  him  a  new  slant  on  the  so- 


6  INTRODUCTION 

cial  question.  It  quickly  modernized  his  conception  of 
the  task  of  religion  in  the  terrific  day  that  is  upon  us. 

A  work  from  his  pen  entitled,  "  The  Book  of  Daniel 
Drew,"  published  about  this  time,  hastened  this  transition 
of  his  mind  and  spirit  into  the  modern  era.  That  book 
is  a  freely  rendered  biography  of  Daniel  Drew,  the  foun- 
der of  modern  Wall  Street  finance.  It  is  a  study  in  the 
psychology  of  that  money  mart,  and  afforded  abundant 
play  for  Bouck  White's  power  of  humor  and  subtle  irony. 
This  same  Daniel  Drew,  who  made  his  millions  by  crook- 
edness on  the  "  Street,"  was  likewise  the  founder  of  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  a  Methodist  institution  in  Madi- 
son, New  Jersey.  Drew  Seminary  writhed  under  the  irre- 
pressible shafts  of  sarcasm;  yes,  still  writhes;  for  the 
book  is  a  standing  arraignment  of  a  state  of  religion  that 
will  use  the  name  of  perhaps  the  most  iniquitous  man  the 
Western  hemisphere  has  produced ;  the  behest  of  the  money 
powers  speaking  with  the  note  of  entreaty.  In  order  to 
curry  favors  with  mammon,  the  Methodists  have  thus  far 
evaded  the  issue  presented  by  that  book.  But  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  they  will  succeed  permanently  in  this  conspiracy  of 
silence,  now  that  Bouck  White  and  his  message  to  the 
world  are  entering  into  a  prominent  place  in  the  minds  of 
men. 

Another  book  written  by  him  during  his  work  at  Holy 
Trinity  was  "  The  Call  of  the  Carpenter."  "  In  the  '  Call 
of  the  Carpenter,'  "  he  states,  "  we  address  ourselves  to 
view  Jesus  of  Nazareth  from  the  viewpoint  of  economics; 
a  different  viewpoint  from  that  usually  held.  But  we  shall 
be  rigorously  historical.  This  is  not  a  work  of  the  im- 
agination; it  is  a  piece  of  cool  scientific  history.  If  the 
portrait  of  the  Carpenter  here  unearthed  differs  from  the 
one  commonly  viewed,  may  it  not  be  because  accretions 
of  time  have  defaced  the  picture,  blurring  its  aforetime 
sharpness?  —  incrustations  that  are  now  peeling  off  by 
grace  of  the  critical  scholarship  of  our  day,  revealing 
some  vivid  tints  in  the  portrait.  This  is  an  attempt  at  a 


INTRODUCTION  7 

restoration.  It  follows  closely  the  ancient  records,  and 
only  attempts  to  retrace  the  picture  as  it  was  at  first." 

These  writings,  and  the  study  that  led  up  to  them,  as 
well  as  his  daily  work  in  caring  for  the  social  debris  thrown 
down  by  the  grinding  of  the  economic  machine,  rapidly 
brought  Bouck  White  into  the  Socialist  position.  He 
joined  the  movement  and  quickly  became  one  of  its  speak- 
ers. His  work  soon  attracted  the  attention  of  the  press. 
He  became  a  target  for  attack.  The  vestry  of  Holy  Trin- 
ity Church  became  alarmed  at  his  uncompromising 
position,  and  when  he  refused  to  yield  to  their  request  that 
he  soften  his  attacks  upon  the  moneyed  oligarchy,  his 
resignation  was  asked  for. 

Removing  to  New  York  he  completed  a  work  partly 
beg;un  at  that  time,  "  The  Carpenter  and  the  Rich  Man." 
This  is  a  companion  book  to  the  "  Call  of  the  Carpenter," 
and  carries  the  message  of  that  work  into  the  deeper  teach- 
ings spoken  by  Jesus.  The  earlier  book  is  a  biography 
of  Jesus  as  a  working  man;  this  is  a  study  of  his  words 
from  the  same  point  of  view,  the  economic.  Jesus  was 
as  interested  in  bread  and  butter  questions,  labor  and 
capital,  taxes,  social  revolution,  as  we  are  to-day.  Bouck 
White  shows  in  vivid  and  absorbing  fashion  Jesus  as  the 
leader  of  the  great  proletarian  surge  of  his  time.  The 
immorality  of  being  rich  when  other  people  are  poor,  is 
the  keynote  of  this  book,  and  the  author  bases  it  on  the 
message  of  the  Carpenter  as  found  in  the  parables. 

Another  book  finished  about  this  time  was  "  The 
Mixing;  Tale  of  a  Town  that  Found  Itself."  Published 
serially  in  Country  Life  in  America,  it  is  the  narrative 
of  the  civic  and  social  regeneration  of  a  rural  village. 
The  author  took  his  native  town  in  the  Catskills  as  the 
scene  of  his  narration ;  and  pictured  it  fictionally  as  aris- 
ing from  a  state  of  lethargy  into  a  thriving  and  wide- 
awake country  district.  The  inhabitants  however  re- 
sented the  pictures  made  of  them  in  the  pages  of  this  book, 
and  no  little  stir  was  caused  by  its  publication.  Indeed 


8  INTRODUCTION 


* 


so  violent  was  the  hostility  against  the  book  and  its  au- 
thor, in  his  native  town,  that  he  has  been  warned  by 
friends  not  to  return  there  until  the  excitement  has  had 
time  to  settle  itself. 

The  principal  work  of  Bouck  White,  however,  after  his 
removal  to  Manhattan,  when  Brooklyn  would  no  longer 
shelter  so  intense  a  foe  of  our  present  social  system,  was 
the  founding  of  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution.  Be- 
ginning with  a  few  who  met  to  sing  some  Socialist  songs 
on  Sunday  afternoons  in  a  studio  on  West  Twelfth  Street, 
the  Church  held  its  first  public  meeting  in  Berkeley 
Theatre,  Easter  Sunday,  April  5th,  1914*.  Deep  interest 
was  manifested  from  the  start.  It  was  felt  that  here  was 
something  new  and  of  large  significance  in  the  social  move- 
ment of  the  day.  The  congregation  grew  and  the  in- 
terest deepened,  until  a  thriving  Sunday  afternoon  gather- 
ing was  built  up. 

Just  at  this  time,  however,  occurred  the  Ludlow  tragedy 
wherein  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  of  the  miners  and 
their  wives  and  children  were  shot  down  by  the  armed 
gunmen  of  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company.  A  Con- 
gressional investigation  traced  the  controlling  ownership 
of  this  Company  to  John  D.  Rockefeller  and  his  son,  of 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  Church  of  New  York.  This 
church  is  not  far  from  the  Berkeley  Theatre.  The 
former  represents  the  richest  of  the  world;  The  Church 
of  the  Revolution,  the  poorest.  Perceiving  the  turbulence 
that  was  being  aroused  by  the  excitement  of  the  masses 
when  the  news  from  Colorado  came  tingling  over  the 
wires,  and  deploring  their  lack  of  a  constructive  pro- 
gram (their  sentiment  was  purely  a  resentment  against 
the  Rockefellers,  personally),  Bouck  White  proposed  to 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Church  a  joint  meeting  of  the  two  con- 
gregations for  the  discussion  of  the  situation,  in  order 
if  possible  to  lift  the  affair  out  of  the  hands  of  wild  com- 
mittees in  the  street,  into  a  spiritual  plane  where  some 
peaceable  and  permanent  remedy  for  what  was  going  to  be 


INTRODUCTION  9 

a  grave  situation,  might  be  found.  Receiving  authority 
from  his  Church  so  to  do,  Bouck  White  wrote  a  letter  to 
that  Fifth  Avenue  pastor,  Dr.  Woelfkin,  stating  that  he 
would  visit  them  in  person  on  the  following  Sunday  morn- 
ing and  convey  this  greeting  and  invitation.  Mailing  this 
letter  by  special  delivery  two  days  ahead,  and  receiving  no 
reply,  he  went  the  following  Sunday  to  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Church  and  at  the  time  set  down  for  notices  in  the  printed 
service,  he  arose  and  began  to  convey  the  greeting  and 
invitation  from  his  Church.  (It  was  later  perceived  that 
a  room  adjoining  the  auditorium  of  the  Church  was 
packed  with  a  platoon  of  police,  numbering  over  a  score 
of  uniformed  men,  besides  plain  clothes  detectives  scat- 
tered through  the  audience.)  Bouck  White  rising  to  his 
feet  and  addressing  the  pastor  said,  "  Dr.  Woelfkin,  as 
the  pastor  of  a  neighboring  church  I  am  here  to  "  when 
he  was  seized  by  the  detectives,  dragged  from  the  church 
and  placed  under  arrest.  The  following  Tuesday  he  was 
tried  in  a  police  court,  wherein  he  was  given  but  slender 
opportunity  for  defense.  After  a  farcical  hearing  he  was 
found  guilty  of  disorderly  conduct,  and  given  the 
maximum  penalty  of  the  law  —  six  months  at  hard  labor 
on  Blackwell's  Island. 

Without  opportunity  to  consult  his  friends,  or  settle 
his  affairs,  he  was  thrust  into  a  prison  van  with  other 
convicts  and  was  taken  to  the  Island.  There  he  was 
locked  in  a  cell  with  forty  criminals  —  the  sweepings  and 
refuse  of  the  streets  of  the  great  metropolis,  with  its 
hordes  of  mental  and  moral  deficients  from  all  parts  of 
the  earth.  After  some  weeks  at  Blackwell's  Island  he 
was  transferred  to  Queens  County  Jail,  on  the  mainland 
opposite. 

Efforts  were  made  to  secure  an  appeal  from  the  de- 
cision which  Magistrate  Campbell  had  pronounced 
against  him.  Amos  Pinchot,  a  wealthy  and  public 
spirited  citizen,  enraged  at  so  manifest  a  perversion  of 
justice  and  of  all  equity,  interested  himself  in  the  case. 


10  INTRODUCTION 

Through  his  generosity,  former  District  Attorney  Os- 
borne,  the  greatest  criminal  lawyer  in  New  York,  was  re- 
tained on  the  case.  A  number  of  other  citizens  of  stand- 
ing in  the  community  also  joined  in  the  effort  to  secure 
his  release.  Re-trial  was  sought  in  a  higher  court;  but 
to  no  avail.  The  powers  political,  the  powers  financial, 
the  powers  ecclesiastical,  united  to  deny  him  a  hearing; 
and  he  was  condemned  to  prison  for  the  entire  term. 

When  all  legal  attempts  had  proved  in  vain,  his  friends 
without  his  knowledge  commenced  a  nation-wide  move- 
ment to  petition  the  Governor  for  his  pardon.  As  soon 
as  the  prisoner  heard  of  this  however,  he  refused  to  permit 
it,  and  wrote  the  letter  to  the  Governor  which  appears  in 
the  correspondence  hereinafter  given. 

On  the  13th  day  of  May,  1914,  Bouck  White  was 
sentenced ;  six  months  later  on  the  twelfth  day  of  Novem- 
ber, he  was  released.  A  company  of  his  loyal  followers 
meanwhile  had  kept  the  church  going  during  his  absence. 
The  loyalty  of  the  members  to  the  Church  in  the  absence 
of  their  leader  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  during  his  im- 
prisonment the  membership  increased  from  less  than  two 
hundred  to  over  five  hundred.  A  Church  whose  pastor  is 
in  prison  and  in  disgrace  with  the  powers  that  be,  is 
supposed  to  be  in  the  hour  of  its  destruction  and  dissolu- 
tion. But  not  so  The  Social  Revolution  Church.  Perse- 
cution did  but  cement  the  fellowship  more  firmly  and  in- 
flame the  zeal  of  its  people  the  more  brightly.  Therefore 
it  was  a  large  and  enthusiastic  company  that  welcomed 
him  at  the  gates  of  the  jail  on  the  morning  of  his  re- 
lease. 

A  taxicab,  owned  by  a  workingman  who  had  followed 
the  story  in  the  papers,  was  loaned  for  the  occasion.  It 
bore  the  banner  of  the  Church  in  front  and  in  the  rear, 
and  to  this  waiting  vehicle  Bouck  White  was  earned  by 
his  followers.  The  next  night,  November  thirteenth,  he 
was  given  a  reception  in  Carnegie  Hall,  and  spoke  the  ad- 
dress given  later  in  this  volume. 


INTRODUCTION  11 

When  it  was  found  that  his  term  of  imprisonment  had 
not  taken  the  spirit  out  of  him,  but  that  he  was  deter- 
mined to  continue  his  work  as  pastor  of  the  Church  of  the 
Social  Revolution,  the  ruling  class,  through  their  official 
organs,  the  public  press,  began  a  campaign  of  vituperation 
and  misrepresentation  against  him.  This  has  proceeded 
to  the  present  time  and  promises  to  continue.  The  tide 
of  invective  has  not  been  permitted  to  alter  Bouck  White's 
determination,  or  to  embitter  his  spirit.  With  poise  and 
power  he  has  continued  the  work,  and  now  he  is  in  demand 
from  outside  places  to  tell  the  message  with  which  he  is 
so  highly  charged.  Inquiries  are  also  coming  in  as  to  the 
possibility  of  forming  branches  of  the  Church  of  the  Social 
Revolution  in  other  communities.  The  efforts  made  in 
New  York  to  stamp  out  the  fire  of  this  Church  have  but 
scattered  the  sparks ;  and  now  that  which  was  but  a  local 
name,  has  become  known  over  a  wide  area.  Already  the 
Church  is  showing  a  missionary  spirit,  and  is  reaching 
out  a  hand  to  those  communities  where  the  literature  of 
this  new  kind  of  Church  is  in  demand. 

The  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  has  its  meetings 
on  Sunday  afternoon  at  three  o'clock  at  Bryant  Hall, 
725  Sixth  Avenue,  between  Forty-second  and  Forty-first 
Streets,  New  York.  Sunday  school  at  half-past  two.  On 
Sunday  evenings  from  seven  o'clock  till  nine  a  meeting  is 
held  at  the  Church  headquarters,  165  West  23rd  Street, 
at  which  all  are  welcome. 

While  in  prison  Bouck  White  wrote  the  latest  produc- 
tion from  his  pen,  entitled  "  Church  of  the  Social  Revolu- 
tion," in  which  he  gives  a  "  Message  to  the  World,"  as  fol- 
lows: 

"  The  nowaday  world  is  topsyturvydom.  That  is  on 
top  which  ought  to  be  at  the  bottom;  and  that  is  at  the 
bottom  which  ought  to  be  at  the  top.  The  object  of  this 
Church  is  to  turn  the  world  upside  down,  to  the  end  that 
it  may  go  thereafter  right  side  up.  The  true  God  is  God 
of  fellowship  and  is  a  mighty  terrible  one  against  them  that 


12  INTRODUCTION 

drive  down  the  poor. 

"  Let  not  the  word  '  Revolution '  make  you  afraid. 
Revolution  is  normal.  Both  evolution  and  Revolution  are 
heaven's  way  of  getting  mankind  forward. 

"  Our  Church  is  a  foreordination.  In  this  black  and 
dark  night  we  are  fashioning  a  world-order  to  take  the 
place  of  this  world-chaos.  We  are  creating  a  new  thing 
in  the  earth,  a  race  that  shall  rejoice  in  fellowship  as 
misers  in  their  gold,  as  a  drunkard  in  his  cups.  Impos- 
sible to  change  human  nature  ?  To  achieve  the  impossible 
has  the  Revolution  Church  been  born.  In  our  singing  you 
will  detect  a  joyousness  to  tingle  the  ears  of  the  Eternal. 
Ofttimes  impoverished,  yet  we  are  rewarded  with  a  more 
pleasant  and  precious  riches.  Obscurity,  houndings,  im- 
prisonment, find  us  to  be  comrades  knit  for  adversity.  A 
Corpus  Christi  are  we,  to  get  the  hell  out  of  this  earth  and 
let  a  little  of  heaven  in. 

"  There  shall  be  no  folk  of  the  common  sort.  Our  God 
has  grace  enough  to  make  every  man  a  nobleman,  every 
woman  beautiful.  The  off-scouring  and  the  refuse  shall 
have  inheritance  with  us. 

"  Bad  are  the  pains  of  poverty.  Bad,  the  ennui  of 
riches.  Both  shall  be  done  away.  We  exalt  the  laborer 
and  abase  the  leisurist.  The  producer  shall  not  as  now 
bring  his  neck  under  the  yoke  of  an  owning  class.  In  glad- 
ness shall  he  create,  and  seek  his  immortality  in  what  his 
hands  have  wrought.  The  toiler  shall  eat  and  be  satis- 
fied. But  idlers,  be  they  in  rags,  be  they  in  tags,  be 
they  in  velvet  gowns,  shall  have  hunger  of  bread.  The 
craftsman  shall  be  in  great  praise.  Honor  and  majesty 
shall  be  laid  upon  him.  Man  shall  not  labor  to  be  rich. 
Man  shall  labor  to  be  creative.  And  earth  shall  be  quick- 
ened to  a  rebirth  in  beauty.  Beyond  all  conjecture  is  the 
sumptuousness  that  is  laid  up  for  earth,  when  man  shall 
have  dilated  to  the  dimensions  of  an  industrial  democrat. 

"  With  a  plea  for  beauty,  then,  this  message  takes  leave 
of  you.  It  has  brought  you  by  now  to  see  that  the  Church 


INTRODUCTION  13 

of  the  Social  Revolution  is  not  a  disintegrator.  We  are 
pathmakers,  preparing  a  way  for  mankind  when,  from  its 
orgy  of  blood,  it  awakes  in  a  bewildering  to-morrow.  For 
the  religion  of  dogma,  we  give  the  religion  of  democracy. 
For  superstition,  we  give  science.  For  the  creeds,  we  give 
the  Carpenter,  cornerstone  of  romance  and  divine  adven- 
ture. For  war,  the  pure,  the  gracious,  the  plentiful  arts 
of  peace;  and  God,  Friend  of  Freedom,  shall  be  prince 
forever." 

On  the  day  of  the  formation  of  the  Church  of  The  Social 
Revolution,  a  street  meeting  was  held,  which  is  known  to 
the  Church  and  the  public  as  the  Mud-Gutter  Meeting  of 
the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution.  They  are  usually 
held  in  much  frequented  districts,  as  Times  Square  and 
Broadway,  and  at  other  points. 

Those  desiring  to  take  part  come  to  the  Church  about 
an  hour  before  the  indoor  meeting  takes  place.  We  form 
a  line  behind  the  standard  bearer;  a  scarlet  banner  with 
the  inscription  upon  it  in  white  letters  — "  Church  of  the 
Social  Revolution,"  and  the  other  an  American  Flag.  A 
signal  for  a  marching  song  is  given  by  the  leader,  and 
the  procession  of  men,  women  and  children  join  in  singing, 
and  march  to  the  assigned  corner.  When  the  place  is 
reached  the  participants  form  a  circle  and  one  of  the 
speakers  begins  to  tell  the  purpose  of  the  meeting  to  the 
crowd  that  invariably  gathers. 

As  soon  as  the  address  is  delivered,  another  song  is  sung 
and  the  crowd  thus  gathered  is  requested  to  take  part. 
Speaking  and  singing  continue  from  twenty  to  thirty 
minutes,  while  the  crowd  attracted  by  the  songs  and 
speeches  is  ever  increasing.  The  last  speaker  then  an- 
nounces the  indoor  meeting  at  Bryant  Hall,  and  invites 
the  listeners  to  fall  in  line  and  march  thither.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  they  do  fall  in  line  regardless  of  their  previous 
state  of  mind  in  respect  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church 
of  the  Social  Revolution.  It  thus  happens  that  when  the 
little  group  which  started  out  for  the  Mud-Gutter  Meet- 


14  INTRODUCTION 

ing  returns,  it  succeeds  in  bringing  back  from  five  to  six 
times  the  number  which  left  the  church. 

An  estimate  of  our  leader  by  Lee  Mitchell  Hodges  in 
the  Philadelphia  North  American  is  of  value  as  showing 
the  spirit  that  animates  the  Church. 

"  Bouck  White  is  a  Thinker  —  the  capital  letter  is 
used  purposely  —  and  a  leader.  Also  as  a  necessary 
premise  to  these  two  achievements  he  is  a  worker.  He  is 
one  of  those  social  service  captains  who  are  helping 
mightily  to  lead  us  into  a  real  land  of  promise  where  we 
shall  be  fed  upon  the  milk  and  honey  of  Justice,  that's  all. 
Seven  letters  that  would  solve  all  our  problems  if  only  we 
would  let  them.  Bouck  White  lives  in  New  York,  where 
Justice  is  supported  on  one  side  by  Harry  Thaw  of  Pitts- 
burgh and  on  the  other  side  by  the  estimable  owners  of 
the  Triangle  Shirt  Waist  factory  who  have  settled  for 
the  lives  lost  in  their  famous  fire  at  $75  per  soul  — 
any  one  will  admit  that  this  is  a  bargain  —  for  the 
estimables.  But  when  Bouck  White's  books  have  been 
more  widely  read  —  one  of  them  now  is  in  its  tenth  edition 
—  and  the  seeds  of  Justice  by  them  planted  have  sprouted 
in  men's  minds  and  hearts,  such  bargains  will  not  be  in 
good  form.  The  book  in  question  is  "  The  Call  of  the 
Carpenter."  It  is  a  life  of  Jesus ;  but  not  like  any  other 
such  life  ever  written.  It  is  a  biography  of  the  working- 
man.  All  I  have  said  thus  far  is  intended  as  a  sort  of 
preface  to  the  presentation  of  the  Creed  which  White  has 
written.  Here  it  is: 

"  *  I  believe  in  God,  the  Master  most  mighty,  stirrer-up 
of  Heaven  and  earth.  And  in  Jesus  the  Carpenter  of 
Nazareth,  who  was  born  of  proletarian  Mary,  toiled  at 
the  work  bench,  descended  into  labor's  hell,  suffered  under 
Roman  tyranny  at  the  hands  of  Pontius  Pilate,  was  cruci- 
fied, dead  and  buried.  The  Power  not  ourselves  which 
makes  for  freedom,  he  rose  again  from  the  dead  to  be 
lord  of  the  democratic  advance,  sworn  foe  of  stagnancy, 
maker  of  folk  upheavals.  I  believe  in  work,  the  self-re- 


INTRODUCTION  15 

specting  toiler,  the  holiness  of  beauty,  freeborn  producers, 
the  communion  of  comrades,  the  resurrection  of  workers, 
and  the  industrial  commonwealth,  the  cooperative  king- 
dom eternal.' ' 

LUCY  WEEKS  TRIMBLE. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

WHY  HAVE  THEY  PUT  ME  INTO  A  CAGE?      .      .      .      .21 

BOUCK  WHITE'S  LETTER  TO  THE  FIFTH  AVENUE  CHURCH  24 

WHY  I  AM  IN  PRISON 28 

LETTER  TO  Gov.  GLYNN 33 

LETTERS  TO  His  CHURCH 

No.     1.     He  Wishes  No  Pardon 35 

No.     2.     An    Unspiritualized    Revolution    Will    Go 

Off  into  Violence 38 

No.     3.     Socialism  is  a  Fellowship 42 

No.     4.     A  Socialism  of  the  Heart 45 

No.     5.     Outbreak  of  the  War  in  Europe      ...  49 
No.     6.     Call  to  a  Dangerous  and  Divine  Adventure  54 
No.     7.     In  Place  of  Bloodshed  We  Give  Brother- 
hood        57 

No.     8.     Prison  Pictures 59 

No.     9.     The    Progressive    Party    Belongs    in    Our 

Camp 61 

No.  10.     Socialism  Set  to  Music 64 

No.  11.     The  Strong  Contagion 69 

No.  12.     Missionary  Measures 72 

No.  13.     Man  is  God's  Younger  Brother      ...  78 

No.   14.     America's  Blending  of  the  Races    .      .      .81 

No.   15.     A  French  Revolution  in   Berlin?  ...  84 

LETTER  TO  THE  NEW  YORK  INDEPENDENT  88 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

AN  OPEN  LETTER 91 

THE  COMRADES  SEND  GREETING 93 

THE  RELIGION  OP  REVOLUTION 97 

BAPTISTS  DIVIDE  ON  THE  SOCIAL  ISSUE 107 

How  TO  SOLVE  UNEMPLOYMENT 110 

BOUCK  WHITE  ON  BLACKWELL'S  ISLAND 114 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CRISIS 123 

REVOLUTION  RITUAL 140 

REVOLUTION  MARRIAGE  RITE 142 

CONSECRATION  OF  CHILDREN 145 

REVOLUTION  CATECHISM                                                          ,  14-7 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 


WHY  HAVE  THEY  PUT  ME  INTO  A  CAGE? 

Why  have  they  put  me  into  a  cage? 

I  am  shut  up  as  a  predatory  beast. 

You  have  been  to  the  park  where  animals  are  kept; 

The  quadruped  house  is  known  afar  by  the  smell. 

There  entering,  you  gasp  at  the  stench.     But  you  harden 

your  nostrils  — 
'Tis  the  animals'  native  odor,  against  which  no  cleanliness 

can  avail. 

Between  the  barred  pens  on  either  side,  you  pass; 
Where  within,  beasts  of  the  jungle  look  forth. 
They  are  wild  things.     Hate  is  in  their  eye. 
A  growl  menaces.     They  will  not  be  tamed. 
But  you  are  unaffrighted.     They  cannot  harm. 
Bars  separate  sturdily  between  you  and  them; 
Tested  bars  of  wrought  iron;  flawless. 
Also  the  door  of  each  den  is  of  stalwart  stuff; 
It  swings  on  huge  hinges ;  and  is  padlocked. 
He  is  well  fastened  in,  that  four-foot  from  the  jungle. 
Restive,  he  treads  the  narrow  cell  with  lithe  eager  pace; 
But  makes  no  effort  to  break  through.     The  walls  are 

stout. 

They  pass  food  in  to  him  daily.     And  in  the  corner, 
A  heap  of  straw  is  for  a  bed  at  night. 

Tiger-like,  I  also  am  locked  in. 

His  imprisonment  and  mine  have  much  in  common ; 

Except  that  his  cell  is  roomier  than  mine; 

And  the  huge  sirloin  they  toss  to  him  each  day, 

21 


22  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Costs  the  city,  I'll  bet,  more  than  the  food  they  serve  to 

me. 

Yes,  and  they  have  clothed  me  in  parallel  stripes, 
The  bands  passing  around  my  body  tiger-fashion. 
To  and  fro,  like  him,  I  pace  the  stone  floor, 
With  springy  tread;  for  I  no  sooner  start  than  I  must 

turn  back. 

Both  he  and  I  were  built  for  wide  spaces ; 
And  this  pent  inclosure  frets  the  soul. 

I  am  sloughed  in  like  a  ravening  beast. 

My  cell-neighbor  on  the  one  side  is  a  forger; 

On  the  other  side,  down  the  tier,  three  burglars. 

And  the  other  day  a  murderer  joined  us. 

Into  society's  lowermost  hell,  I  am  thrust. 

Here  are  the  very  sweepings  of  the  city. 

Amid  walking  disease  I  pass  my  days  — 

The  pick  of  an  international  host  for  vileness. 

The  stink  is  everywhere;  filth  of  body; 

Tongues  unpurified  since  the  primal  birth. 

Girt  with  garbage,  I  eat  the  food  of  felons. 

At  night  I  lie  on  my  bunk.  I  hear  padded  steps  draw- 
ing near. 

It  is  the  soft-footed  keeper.     As  he  passes  my  den, 

He  looks  in,  and  flashes  a  light  in  my  face. 

A  shriek  tears  the  air.     I  think  I  know  whence  it  comes. 

It  is  from  the  plumber  they  brought  in  yesterday  after 
a  long  spree. 

He  told  me  the  Horrors  were  coming  to  him ; 

And  asked  me  to  stay  near  him,  for  he  dreaded  the  night. 

I  hear  his  yelp  of  terror  now,  but  cannot  get  to  him. 

On  another  tier,  a  drug-diseased  man  is  calling  for  cocaine. 

Why  have  I  been  decreed  unto  a  descent  into  hell  ? 

"  A    dangerous    man,"    spoke    the    judge,    pronouncing 

verdict. 
"  Dangerous  ?  "  I  cried  aloud  the  miseries  of  the  poor. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  23 

I  pointed  to  vast  fortunes  piling  up ; 

Rich  revenues  —  that  grandest  foe  of  fellowship. 

For  voiceless  ones,  I  lifted  up  my  voice  — 

For  Colorado  miners  coldbloodedly  shot  down. 

Unto  an  America  grown  fat  and  cowardly, 

I  evoked  a  remembrance  of  oldtime  valiant  days. 

Is  that  dangerous? 

I  taught  the  strong  teachings  of  the  Carpenter, 

Expounding  from  the  mud-gutter  the  record  holy. 

Time  was  when,  to  follow  him,  meant  fetters. 

Is  it  that  once  again  an  era  of  the  masterclass  approaches, 

When  to  proclaim  the  wrongness  of  extortionate  wealth, 

Shall  loose  upon  a  man  the  terrors  of  the  state? 

The  religion  of  the  rights  of  man,  I  propagated. 

From  their  dividends,  I  called  men  to  democracy. 

I  announced  an  age  when  workers  shall  be  great. 

Toilers  I  called  to  grandeur  and  to  freedom ; 

Expanding  the  hearts  of  men  with  impulses  to  liberty ; 

Into  the  beautiful  kingdom  of  God,  recasting  society. 

Of  a  gospel  thus  patterned  I  am  the  evangelist. 

Dangerous  ? 

The  keeper  closes  the  door  with  clangor  of  iron; 

I  hear  the  chain  clink,  with  which  he  makes  it  fast  on  the 

outside ; 

Then  the  sound  of  his  feet  retreating  down  the  corridor. 
I  am  alone.     I  pass  to  the  grating. 
I  put  my  face  against  the  bars,  and  peer  out. 
Why  have  they  put  me  into  a  cage? 


BOUCK  WHITE'S  LETTER  TO  THE  FIFTH 
AVENUE  CHURCH 

My  dear  Dr.  Woelfkin: 

This  resolution  was  passed  by  the  Socialist  Church,  of 
which  I  am  pastor : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  extend  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist 
Church,  in  person  of  its  pastor,  a  request  to  meet  our 
pastor  in  joint  debate  on  this  topic:  '  Did  Jesus  Teach 
the  Immorality  of  Being  Rich?  '  we  to  uphold  the  affirma- 
tive and  assume  all  financial  responsibilities.  Resolved 
further,  that  we  attend  that  Church  this  coming  Sunday 
morning,  May  10th,  to  present  this.  And  that  we  request 
our  pastor,  because  of  the  spirit  of  evasion  shown  in  that 
Church  when  our  members  attended  their  Friday  meeting, 
May  1st,  to  request  an  answer  in  open  meeting." 

I  am  sending  you  this,  my  dear  Dr.  Woelfkin,  ahead 
of  time,  in  order  to  assure  you  of  the  very  real  friendliness 
with  which  we  are  coming  to  you.  We  are  quite  aware 
that  a  visitation  from  a  church  to  its  neighbor  is  a  bit 
unusual,  and  that  the  presentation  of  a  greeting  in  open 
service  is  likewise  something  out  of  the  ordinary.  But 
we  submit  to  you  that  the  times  just  now  are  quite  extraor- 
dinary and  demand  extraordinary  modes  of  meeting  the 
issues  presented  for  solution.  The  topic  in  our  meeting 
Sunday  afternoon,  in  the  Berkeley  Theatre,  is  to  be, 
"  Galilee  and  Colorado."  That  will  open  up  the  entire 
question  of  riches  and  the  industrial  situation  in  our  coun- 
try at  the  present  time.  Furthermore,  I  am  sure  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  the  findings  of  the  Congressional  In- 
vestigation Committee,  of  recent  date,  connect  some  in 
your  church  membership  in  a  quite  intimate  way  with  the 

Ludlow  Massacre.     Therefore,  the  issue  is  one  which  we 

24 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  25 

do  not  think  you  will  wish  to  evade,  when  you  have 
thought  it  over  with  regard  to  all  the  tremendous  conse- 
quences involved. 

I  am  one  that  holds  —  and  that  is  what  makes  of  me  a 
kindred  spirit  with  yours  —  that  the  arbitrament  of  this 
entire  revolutionary  upheaval  should  be  lifted  into  the 
religious  realm.  There  alone,  as  you  and  I  both  know, 
can  it  find  constructive  treatment.  It  is  to  that  end  that 
the  church  of  which  I  am  pastor  was  formed.  We  feel 
that  the  Carpenter  of  Galilee  was  never  more  needed 
in  the  world  than  at  the  present  moment.  Therefore,  we 
are  organizing  ourselves  with  the  purpose  of  making  him 
the  avowed  leader  and  inspiration  of  this  labor  agitation. 
Inasmuch  as  your  church  and  ours  together  bow  before  the 
same  Master,  it  surely  would  be  advantageous  if  we  could 
establish  something  of  a  fraternal  relationship  one  with  the 
other.  I  am  not  concealing  from  myself  or  from  you 
that  we  probably  hold  different  views  as  to  the  teaching  of 
that  Carpenter.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  for  that  reason 
that  we  wish  the  joint  debate.  We  can  think  of  no  surer 
and  happier  way  of  arriving  at  the  truth  than  by  such  an 
orderly  exchange  of  opinions.  And  we  believe  that  you 
and  yours  are  as  sincerely  desirous  of  the  truth  as  we  are. 
It  may  not  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  state  that  our  Social- 
ist Church  holds  most  enthusiastically  to  the  modern 
Biblical  science  as  it  was  taught  me  at  Harvard  and  at 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary.  And  it  will  surely  be 
helpful  to  some  in  the  churches  of  the  older  school  to  get 
our  viewpoint  as  to  the  discoveries  which  scholarship  is 
making  concerning  the  economic  side  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus. 

I  beg  you  to  believe  that  I  am  one  who  holds  a  high 
opinion  of  the  good  will  of  many  in  the  privileged  class. 
It  is  not  at  all  true  to  say  that  the  industrial  troubles  of 
our  time  are  due  to  the  personal  cruelty  of  the  masters  in 
control.  At  our  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution,  we 
proclaim  the  doctrine  that  the  present  deplorable  situation 


26  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

is  not  due  to  individuals,  but  to  the  system  wherein  individ- 
ual rich  men  are  hopelessly  enmeshed.  Therefore,  we 
feel  that  if  they  could  be  made  to  see  the  situation  from 
this  point  of  view,  together  with  the  economic  message  of 
the  Galilean,  it  might  be  the  means  of  winning  them  to 
the  cause  of  social  reconstruction.  For  not  all  of  them 
are  wedded  to  their  dollars.  And  these  would  prefer  the 
riches  of  fellowship  to  riches  of  silver,  if  persuaded  that 
the  Master  unconditionally  —  and  for  statesmanly  rea- 
sons —  demands  it. 

I  beg  leave  to  state  that  one  of  the  purposes  of  the 
Socialist  Church  is  to  constitute  itself  a  center  of  media- 
tion and  mutual  understanding  between  the  warring 
classes.  And  I  submit  to  you  that  this  friendly  visitation 
of  our  church  to  yours  might  be  the  means  of  a  concilia- 
tory work  of  perhaps  far-reaching  consequences.  We  are 
very  near  neighbors;  our  church  holds  divine  services  at 
the  Berkeley  Theatre,  West  44th  Street,  and  yours  at 
West  57th  Street.  Furthermore,  we  represent  the  down- 
most  man,  whereas  your  church  represents  the  wealthiest 
of  the  world.  Therefore,  in  this  social  crisis  which  is 
gathering  its  thunder  so  menacingly  to-day,  it  is  entirely 
thinkable  that,  by  some  relationship  that  will  permit  an 
interchange  of  views,  a  friendliness  of  feeling  could  be 
brought  about  that  might  be  the  means  of  a  happy  issue 
out  of  all  our  social  afflictions.  We  are  bold  to  go  to  you 
this  Sunday  morning  for  a  further  reason,  and  one  more- 
over of  so  recent  discovery  as  to  have  precluded  much 
preliminary  consultation  with  you  and  yours:  words  have 
reached  us  from  more  than  one  source  that  some  of  the 
wilder  spirits  in  the  revolutionary  movement  are  planning 
some  kind  of  concerted  affront  to  you  and  your  church. 
We  of  the  Socialist  Church  deeply  regret  these  turbulent 
committees  that  so  evilly  obscure  the  large  principles,  and 
drag  the  issue  into  the  mire  of  personal  animosities  and 
vituperations.  Therefore  we  are  offering  you  Sunday 
morning  our  assistance  in  quelling,  so  far  as  we  are  able, 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  27 

any  wildness  that  might  be  maturing.  And  this  we  do, 
not  altogether  out  of  friendliness  to  you,  but  out  of 
loyalty  to  the  Socialist  movement,  because  that  movement 
has  everything  to  gain  by  being  kept  in  the  realms  of  or- 
derliness and  constitutional  procedure. 

Indeed,  it  is  in  part  because  of  these  wild  suggestions  so 
abundantly  proffering  themselves,  that  we  have  been 
stirred  to  make  you  the  offer  of  a  joint  debate  on  the 
fundamental  issues  involved.  We  hope  thereby  to  satisfy 
the  turbulent  spirits.  You  and  yours  occupy  a  semi-pub- 
lic position  because  of  the  exemption  of  your  church  prop- 
erty from  taxation  (and  this  makes  us  all,  to  some  degree, 
supporters  of  your  church).  If  you  are  persistent  in 
your  attempt  to  avoid  an  issue  now  so  critically  come  to 
a  head,  it  is  entirely  thinkable  that  the  wild  element  re- 
ferred to  will  be  stirred  perhaps  to  desperate  means  and 
will  attempt  to  justify  violence  by  the  assertion  that  a  ra- 
tional and  orderly  exchange  of  views  was  not  possible. 

I  ask  you  to  believe  that  we  come  to  you  in  all  comity. 
The  hand  we  hold  out  bears  no  weapon ;  but  is  open  in  an 
earnest  desire  to  clasp  that  of  a  sister  church,  in  all  friend- 
liness and  courtesy. 

I  beg  to  be,  fraternally  yours  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
Carpenter, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


WHY  I  AM  IN  PRISON  * 

Issues  of  some  magnitude  were  involved  in  my  visit  to 
the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  (the  Rockefeller)  Church,  and 
for  which  I  am  now  in  prison  stripes. 

The  exemption  of  church  property  from  taxation,  the 
rights  of  the  public  in  a  tax-exempt  church,  the  status  of 
absentee  landlordism  in  the  light  of  our  country's  official 
ethics,  were  some  of  the  questions  interwoven  with  the 
affair. 

Yet  Magistrate  Campbell,  in  a  New  York  police  court, 
entertained  no  doubt  of  the  competency  of  his  tribunal  to 
pass  upon  these  issues.  He  devoted  the  whole  of  nearly 
twenty  minutes  to  the  trial.  He  found  me  instantane- 
ously and  heinously  guilty ;  pronounced  me  "  a  dangerous 
man  "  because  I  had  dared  to  raise  these  questions  into  the 
glare  of  publicity. 

I  have  been  sloughed  into  a  prison  cell.  Appeal  to  a 
superior  court  has  been  hilariously  denied  me.  My  finger 
prints  have  been  taken.  I  am  numbered  with  the  felons. 
For  the  space  of  185  days  I  am  being  fed  with  the  bread 
of  affliction  and  with  the  water  of  affliction. 

Did  I  have  a  right  in  that  church?  That  depends  in 
part  upon  the  announced  —  somewhat  ostentatiously  an- 
nounced —  policy  of  brotherliness  by  the  Baptist  Church 
to  other  congregations.  (I  am  a  minister  ordained  by  the 
Congregational  denomination.)  It  depends  also  on  the 
legal  standing  of  the  public  in  tax-exempt  churches.  The 
consolidated  property  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  question 
amounts  to  well  toward  a  million  dollars.  Its  freedom 
from  taxation  now  through  long  years  of  its  life  means 
that  all  the  people  of  New  York  City  have  been  compelled 

*  Reprinted  from  the  New  York  Independent. 

28 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  29 

by  statutory  enactment  to  contribute  to  the  support  of 
that  church  a  sum  aggregating  many  ten  thousands  of 
dollars.  For  years,  therefore,  I  have  been  a  financial  con- 
tributor to  the  upkeep  of  that  place  of  worship.  In  re- 
turn for  my  monetary  support  (I  mentioned  this  fact  in 
my  letter)  I  asked  the  right,  once  in  a  lifetime,  to  bring 
before  that  church  a  matter  which  I  deemed  of  ethical  and 
spiritual  import.  I  am  in  felon  stripes. 

A  convict  locked  in  a  cell  near  to  mine  was  arrested  for 
selling  fraudulent  butter.  Brought  before  a  police  court, 
the  magistrate  informed  him  that  the  case  would  have 
to  be  tried  before  a  higher  court.  Police  courts  are 
adapted  for  "  drunks,"  horse  beatings,  window  breakings 
and  vagrancy  cases.  In  an  affair  involving  several  pounds 
of  butter,  the  law  provides  that  the  accused  is  entitled  to 
be  heard  in  a  court  whose  procedure  is  sufficiently  ma- 
jestic to  give  him  a  patient  and  respectful  hearing.  Since 
my  imprisonment,  also,  I  have  seen  pickpockets  come  in, 
stay  a  few  days,  and  be  released  by  writ,  or  go  for  a  new 
trial.  The  law  notoriously  is  tender  toward  butter  cases 
and  pickpockets,  dignifying  them  with  a  hearing  at  the 
bar  of  an  august  and  learned  tribunal.  In  public  interest, 
at  least,  the  deed  for  which  I  am  jailed  was  not  inferior  to 
theirs.  It  was  telegraphed  very  widely.  It  even  got  onto 
the  cables  and  was  sent  to  far  coasts  of  the  earth.  But 
the  only  hearing  that  has  been  permitted  me  was  twenty 
minutes  in  a  police  court,  amid  a  calendar  of  "  drunks  " 
and  "  found  sleeping  on  doorsteps."  I  understand  that 
the  magistrate  who  so  expeditiously  found  me  guilty  and 
sonorously  sentenced  me,  is  being  put  forward  this  fall  for 
the  Supreme  Court,  by  a  political  party  that  is  peculiarly 
tender  to  magnates  of  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Com- 
pany sort,  and  grateful  to  "  serviceable  "  handlers  of  the 
law. 

A  debate  between  our  church  and  the  Rockefeller  church 
on  the  thesis,  "  Did  Jesus  teach  the  immorality  of  being 
rich?  "  was  a  suggested  form  of  the  relationship  we  cov- 


30  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

eted  to  establish,  and  for  proposing  which  I  am  in  jail. 
The  query  presents  itself,  Would  it  not  have  been  wiser 
in  Dr.  Woelfkin  to  give  the  knockout  to  religious  radical- 
ism once  for  all,  by  accepting  the  challenge?  The  debate 
would  have  furnished  him  a  resounding  platform  from 
which  to  triumph  over  us  and  establish  for  all  time  hence- 
forth scriptural  sanction  of  vast  private  possessions.  Of 
a  surety  the  occasion  would  have  been  dignified  with  con- 
siderable publicity.  The  mere  challenge  to  it  —  as  I 
stated  —  got  onto  the  ocean  cables.  The  event  itself 
would  have  opened  to  the  Rockefeller  theologian  a  wide 
auditory.  It  would  have  made  the  New  Testament  a  news 
item  of  double  column,  front  page  importance.  And  his 
demolition  of  our  arguments  would  have  been  a  historic 
event,  incalculably  buttressing  the  conservative  school; 
'twould  have  asserted  the  divine  right  of  riches  in  the  hear- 
ing of  tens  of  thousands  reached  by  Associated  Press  dis- 
patches. 

Can  it  be  that  Dr.  Woelfkin  and  his  supporters  feared 
the  issue?  Some  of  the  facts  in  the  case  give  color  to  the 
suspicion.  Platoons  of  police,  the  extreme  sentence  of  the 
law,  and  now  a  triple  row  of  prison  bars  between  me  and 
freedom,  suggest  in  them  a  state  of  mind  far  from  one  of 
poise;  yes,  one  of  near-panic.  Hardly  could  the  pastor 
of  that  church  contemptuously  have  accounted  me  an  an- 
tagonist unmeted  for  a  learned  man  to  encounter.  The 
pronunciamento  of  the  magistrate  against  me  is  clear  on 
that  point :  "  A  man  the  more  dangerous  because  of  his 
education  and  churchly  orders."  My  books  on  the  eco- 
nomic interpretation  of  the  life  and  message  of  the  Gali- 
lean bear  the  imprint  of  publishers  one  of  whom  is  Amer- 
ica's ambassador  to  England.  My  academic  standing  is 
officially  certified  by  our  country's  oldest  university  and 
her  premier  school  of  divinity. 

The  inference  is  unavoidable  that  organized  Christianity 
is  afraid  of  the  Bible.  Modern  scholarship  is  making  that 
book,  in  these  times  of  social  break-up,  what  James  Rus- 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  31 

sell  Lowell  declared  it  to  be  toward  the  slave  system,  "  the 
most  revolutionary  book  in  literature."  To  dampen  down 
the  explosiveness  so  thickly  strewn  through  it,  the  pulpi- 
teers who  preach  for  hire  and  look  to  millionaric  support, 
are  put  to  more  and  more  desperate  shift,  stopping  not  at 
bonds  and  imprisonment  of  those  who  ask  embarrassing 
questions.  No  one  more  than  they  realizes  the  extent  to 
which  the  churches  to-day  are  honeycombed  with  doubt 
and  open  skepticism.  I  have  a  letter  recently  sent  to  me 
by  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  question,  in  which 
he  admits  the  hollowness  of  the  whole  institution.  I  quote : 
"  Christianity  (when  it  produces  anything,  for  it  usually 
leaves  a  person  with  his  moral,  intellectual  and  spiritual 
aspirations  untouched,  or  in  a  state  of  decay)  produces 
weaklings,  people  not  interested  in  government,  poor 
fathers,  missionaries  doing  ridiculous  things,  people  who 
have  never  had  their  proper  development  of  mind."  I  am 
quoting  one  of  the  milder  passages  in  his  letter,  lest  I 
should  seem  to  be  overstating.  And  the  writer  of  it  is  not 
only  a  member  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Woelfkin's  Baptist  Church, 
but  is  a  teacher  of  a  class  in  the  Sunday  school  there, 
John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  being  another  of  the  teachers. 

To  this  pass  of  insincerity,  the  established  religion  of 
Christendom  is  come.  It  has  long  been  known,  even  con- 
ceded, that  the  Church  of  Rome  operated  on  a  principle 
of  suppression,  permitting  only  the  portions  of  truth  to 
percolate  to  the  masses  which  she  thinks  safe  and  expedi- 
ent. It  may  come,  however,  as  a  surprise  to  many  to 
learn  that  the  Protestant  Church  —  she  who  was  founded 
to  blab  the  words  of  truth  utterly  —  has  switched  over 
and  is  now  a  zealous  adjutant  of  Rome  in  keeping  the 
verities  of  scholarship  from  the  populace.  And  the  Bap- 
tists are  not  alone  in  the  business. 

"  We  are  due  for  the  greatest  spiritual  crisis  in  the  his- 
tory of  mankind,"  states  Professor  Eucken,  of  Jena.  To 
prepare  for  that  crisis,  by  organizing  the  new  order  of  in- 
telligence and  the  new  spiritual  understanding  that  will  be 


32  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

requisite  in  the  world  of  to-morrow,  is  the  purpose  of  the 
Church  of  the  Social  Revolution,  of  which  I  am  the  pastor. 
We  hold  service  in  a  hired  hall  in  New  York,  for  we  own 
no  sanctuary.  A  quality  of  fearlessness,  so  visitors  say, 
attaches  to  our  meetings  and  activities.  Over  two  hun- 
dred new  members  have  been  added  since  I  have  been  be- 
hind prison  bars.  This  is  the  covenant  we  take :  "  I  en- 
list under  the  Lord  of  the  blood-bright  banner,  to  bring 
to  an  end  a  scheme  of  things  that  has  enthroned  Leisure 
on  the  back  of  Labor,  an  idle  class  sucking  the  substance 
of  the  poor.  I  will  not  be  a  social  climber,  but  will  stay 
with  the  workers  in  class  solidarity  till  class  shall  have 
been  done  away  in  fellowship's  glad  dawn.  I  will  seek  re- 
cruits for  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution,  unto  the 
overthrow  of  present-day  society  and  its  rebuilding  into 
comradeship."  We  hold  that  religion  and  economics  are 
terms  that  have  grandest  agreement;  conjoined,  they  make 
a  live  organism ;  divorced,  they  are  a  soul  without  a  body 
and  a  body  without  a  soul.  On  my  release,  November  12, 
I  shall  resume  my  work  as  leader  of  this  church ;  to  lay  the 
mudsill,  as  it  were,  for  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth 
that  are  preparing.  I  shall  go  out  of  the  prison  gate 
with  more  endurance  for  the  task  than  when  I  came  in. 
And  with  more  certitude  likewise.  The  breaking  down  of 
present-day  civilization,  in  the  catastrophic  clash  in  Eu- 
rope, tells  that  we  have  no  moment  to  lose  in  beginning 
preparations  for  the  new  spiritual  order.  Though  prison 
continue  to  menace  me,  I  cannot  give  up  my  work. 

Queens  County  Prison,  New  York. 


LETTER  TO  GOVERNOR  GLYNN 

To  His  Excellency,  Governor  Glynn, 
Executive  Mansion,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Word  has  just  reached  me  that  petitions  are  being  made 
to  you  for  my  pardon.  A  New  York  weekly  paper  urges 
it  editorially,  on  the  grounds  of  humanity ;  intimating  that 
I  have  suffered  enough,  and  that  imprisonment  has  now 
wrought  in  me  the  hoped-for  repentance  and  amendment. 
I  am  indeed  desirous  of  freedom.  Life  in  an  iron  cell  is 
not  to  my  liking.  Nevertheless,  honesty  requires  me  to 
inform  you  that  I  am  not  repentant.  The  deed  for  which 
I  am  jailed,  broke  no  law  either  of  God  or  man.  As  a 
financial  supporter  through  many  years  now  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church  that  has  put  me  behind  the  bars  (the  exemption 
of  the  churches  from  taxation  makes  every  resident  of  the 
city  a  contributor  to  their  upkeep),  I  was  within  my  legal 
rights  in  carrying  to  that  Church  a  greeting  at  the  time  in 
their  service  set  apart  for  "  Notices."  And  as  to  the  moral 
right :  sir,  I  could  not  look  my  God  in  the  face,  had  I  as 
one  of  the  citizen-rulers  of  this  country  permitted  one 
hundred  and  fifty  of  my  fellow-workingmen  to  be  shot 
down  at  Ludlow,  Col.,  without  making  effort  to  bring  the 
thing  home  to  the  conscience  of  the  absentee  landlordism 
that  did  the  shooting  and  to  the  Church  that  solaces  those 
absentee  landlords  with  spiritual  consolation. 

"  Repentant !  "  I  am,  sir,  the  most  unrepentant  pris- 
oner a  New  York  City  jail  ever  sloughed  into  a  cell.  Let 
another  Ludlow  massacre  happen,  I  would  repeat  my  deed 
to-morrow.  So  far  from  life  in  prison  having  wrought  in 
me  a  penitential  work,  it  has  tightened  and  reenforced  in 
me  a  remonstrant  mood. 

I  am  glad  of  friends  that  so  fervently  covet  my  release 

33 


34  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

as  to  petition  you  for  a  pardon.  Nevertheless,  honor 
forbids  me,  by  keeping  silent,  possibly  to  lure  you  into 
granting  their  request,  in  ignorance  of  my  mind  and  will 
toward  the  deed  I  committed.  In  a  political  offense  — 
and  mine  is  such  —  a  pardon  implies  that  the  offender  has 
turned  from  his  former  way  and  will  be  favorable  hence- 
forth to  the  state.  But  I  have  not  turned  from  my  for- 
mer way;  nor  am  I  favorable  to  the  state  as  at  present 
constituted.  I  am  holding  —  with  a  certitude  which  aug- 
ments daily  —  that  our  present  ordering  of  human  affairs 
is  uncivilized  and  uncivilizing.  When  I  am  released  from 
prison,  I  expect  to  resume  the  leadership  of  the  Church  of 
the  Social  Revolution  of  which  I  am  pastor;  whose  pur- 
pose is  to  agitate  and  educate  for  the  overthrow  of  pres- 
ent-day society,  and  its  rebuilding  into  fellowship. 

I  cannot  ask  favor  of  a  foe.  Nevertheless  there  is  some- 
thing that  you  ought  to  do  in  this  affair;  something 
necessitated  by  the  rules  of  the  game  that  this  civilization 
you  uphold  professes  to  play.  It  is,  that  you  use  influ- 
ence with  the  appellate  division  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
this  State  to  get  my  case  on  the  calendar  before  my  sen- 
tence expires.  I  desire  a  trial.  I  have  not  had  one  as 
yet.  The  only  hearing  I  have  had  has  been  in  a  police 
court  —  twenty  minutes,  sandwiched  in  between  "  drunks  " 
and  "  found  sleeping  on  doorsteps."  Thus  far  the  powers 
ecclesiastical,  financial  and  political,  in  league  against 
me,  have  combined  to  deny  me  a  hearing  in  a  superior 
court.  When  the  Appellate  Division  re-sits  in  October, 
it  will  be  too  late  to  save  me  from  nearly  six  months  of 
imprisonment.  But  it  can  vindicate  my  name  and  that  of 
the  Church.  Vindication  is  what  we  desire.  And  to  it 
we  are  entitled. 

I  am,  sir, 
Respectfully  yours, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


LETTERS  TO  HIS  CHURCH 

NO.  1 
HE  WISHES  NO  PARDON 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL, 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 
Comrades : 

I  wonder  if  you  know  what  it  means,  that  this  Church 
is  going  on  so  prosperously, —  barely  a  jar  when  I  was 
suddenly  lifted  from  you  and  clapped  into  prison?  It 
means  this :  that  a  Power  other  than  Bouck  White  brought 
you  together  into  a  church,  and  now  that  Power  is  carry- 
ing you  on,  quite  without  my  presence.  To  some  this 
phenomenon  may  seem  a  slight  thing.  But  I  say  unto 
you,  historic  meanings  are  wrapped  up  in  it.  Not  the 
executive  committee  with  all  of  their  enthusiasm,  nor  Sol 
Fieldman  and  his  capabilities  are  keeping  you  together  in 
so  compact  and  effective  a  fellowship.  The  Unseen  is  the 
operating  Hand  back  of  and  behind  it  all.  And,  when 
that  Power  begins  to  work,  history  begins  to  be  written. 
It  is  a  Pentecostal  time  here  in  my  prison  cell,  whenever 
tidings  reach  me  of  the  Church's  concord  and  prosperity. 
For  you  are  my  life  henceforth.  Friends  of  former  time 
write  me,  asking  for  permission  to  visit  me.  I  reply  by 
referring  them  to  you  and  stating  that  you,  and  not  I, 
have  that  and  kindred  matters  in  hand.  Dearer  to  me 
than  flesh  and  blood,  are  you.  To-day  I  got  a  letter 
from  my  sister.  She  signs  herself,  "  One  of  your  people, 
and  —  incidentally  —  your  sister." 

These  conversions  that  are  being  wrought  and  these 
enthusiasms  and  loyalties  are  no  human  doings.  And  I 

bow  my  head  in  awe  and  adoration. 

35 


36  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Concerning  a  practical  matter.  I  am  affrighted  at 
the  petition  to  the  Governor  for  pardon.  Of  course  you 
have  taken  pains  to  safeguard  it  from  any  hint  of  suppli- 
cation. But  the  newspapers  will  give  it  that  squint. 
Furthermore,  news  reaches  me  that  some  Baptist  con- 
vention is  planning  a  like  petition.  You  know  a  plea  was 
already  made  to  the  Mayor,  on  the  grounds  "  that  Bouck 
White  has  now  been  punished  sufficiently." 

Would  it  not  be  better  to  concentrate  our  fight  on  the 
Court  of  Appeals?  A  pardon!  I  wish  no  pardon.  A 
trial  is  what  I  want.  Clemency!  We  ask  no  clemency 
from  this  ungodly  civilization.  We  ask  justice.  Six 
months  in  prison !  I'll  stay  sixty  times  six  months  rather 
than  make  terms  with  the  rulers  and  magistrates  that  own 
this  present  world.  Between  them  and  us  a  great  gulf 
sunders.  We  will  neither  truckle  nor  fawn  nor  suppli- 
cate. The  God  I  am  revealing  unto  you  is  a  Man  of 
War,  a  Captain,  a  fighter  and  the  Leader  of  fighters. 
Were  we  to  knuckle  under  for  the  sake  of  material  gain, 
such  as  a  shorter  prison  term,  He  would  avert  His  face 
from  us  in  sorrow,  or  spurn  us  from  Him  in  anger. 

A  pardon  implies  that  I  am  in  a  chastened  mood,  re- 
gretting at  last  my  deed.  But  I  do  not  regret  my  deed. 
I'm  the  most  impenitent  prisoner  the  New  York  jails  ever 
clanged  their  doors  upon.  And  I  grow  more  impenitent 
daily.  I  am  entreating  you  to  a  gentle  and  forgiving 
spirit  toward  one  another.  But  that  is  in  order  that  you 
may  be  a  more  effective  fighting  instrument  against  this 
mammonism  which  is  our  common  and  terrible  enemy. 
When  I  find  in  you  this  no-surrender  mood,  then  I  skip 
for  joy,  and  my  sleep  is  sweet  unto  me. 

Life  in  jail  is  worse  than  I  had  conceived  it  to  be.  The 
indignities  we  receive  as  our  daily  lot  bring  one  down  very 
near  to  the  animal  estate.  None  the  less,  I'd  rather  en- 
dure prison  life  a  hundred  fold  than  be  released  on  terms 
that  would  sacrifice  in  the  slightest  degree  the  principle 
I'm  here  for.  Woelfkin  is  in  Europe;  I'm  in  prison.  He 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  37 

is  at  the  summit  of  human  comfort  and  luxury  and  bliss ; 
I  am  in  society's  lowermost  hell.  But  I'd  rather  be  where 
I  am  at  this  moment,  than  where  he  is. 

The  daylight  that  filters  into  my  cell  is  now  dying,  and 
very  quickly  I'll  be  in  darkness.  But  the  bars  that  screen 
me  in  from  the  world  outside  do  not  screen  me  in,  Above. 
And,  from  there,  comes  down  the  light  that  never  was  on 
sea  or  land.  And  my  cell  is  quite  flooded  then  with 
brightness. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  % 

AN  UNSPIRITUALIZED  REVOLUTION  WILL  GO 
OFF  INTO  VIOLENCE 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL, 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 
Comrades : 

An  event  has  happened,  I  read,  since  my  last  letter, 
which  casts  a  revealing  light  on  the  fermentation  that  is 
loose  in  the  land,  and  which  by  the  contrast  discloses  the 
essentially  conservative  and  constructive  quality  of  our 
church.  I  mean  the  bomb  tragedy  of  July  4.  It  ap- 
pears that  the  protest  against  the  money  lords,  and  in 
especial  the  money  lord  of  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron 
Company,  has  darkened  off  into  a  sanguinary  thing, 
wherein  the  misadvised  protesters  have  followed  a  steeply 
descending  course,  until  their  inflamed  mentalities  came  to 
believe  that  blood-letting  is  the  only  cure  for  the  social 
malady.  And  in  maturing  which,  they  met  their  death. 

Why  this  mournful  happening,  that  has  draped  the  radi- 
cal movement  in  black?  I  will  tell  you  why.  That  wing 
of  the  revolution  divorced  themselves  from  God.  Openly, 
or  in  secret,  they  scoffed  at  things  unseen  and  spiritual. 
This  affair  of  last  Saturday  was  being  engineered  by  the 
same  folk  who  conducted  the  unemployment  gatherings  at 
Rutgers  Square  the  past  winter,  and  who  more  recently 
have  carried  through  a  series  of  agitations  at  Tarrytown 
and  affiliated  places.  Beyond  doubt,  those  leaders  were 
moved  by  a  sincere  pity  for  the  poor  of  the  land,  and  by 
a  fine  indignation  against  the  arrogance  of  power.  But 
they  incorporated  into  their  doings  no  recognition  of  a 
spiritual  kingdom  overlying  the  world  of  outward  deeds. 

38 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  39 

They  and  their  followers  beheld  not  the  unseen  causes  of 
the  despotism  that  is  upon  us.  They  beheld  only  the  out- 
ward incarnations  of  that  despotism.  Accordingly  they 
directed  their  wrath  against  persons  rather  than  against 
principles.  They  thought  to  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
—  which  is  within  —  by  force.  And  the  blow,  aimed  at 
another,  has  landed  on  themselves. 

Violence  is  an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  revolution 
propagated  along  irreligious  lines.  Irreligion  means 
blindness  to  powers  that  are  invisible  —  a  holdfast  only  in 
things  that  the  eye  can  discern  and  the  fat  hands  of  flesh 
can  handle.  Therefore  when  a  sorrow  like  the  Ludlow 
sorrow  transpires,  people  of  this  materialist  cast  of  mind 
see  only  an  individual  as  the  cause,  and  aim  their  fury 
against  the  Tarrytown  magnate.  As  though  a  bomb  ex- 
ploding him  and  his  estate  into  hell  would  remedy  the 
Colorado  crisis  one  iota,  or  make  a  repetition  of  Ludlow 
impossible.  It's  a  terrible  thing  to  foment  revolutionary 
passions,  without  coupling  up  those  passions  with  the  de- 
votional spirit,  which  alone  can  keep  them  sweet  and  con- 
structive. A  church  without  social  revolution  is  to-day 
a  toy  and  dilettante  thing;  so  in  the  opposite  direction 
social  revolution  without  church  is  a  snake-haired,  bomb- 
casting  fury. 

The  violence  and  slaughter  into  which  this  school  of 
revolutionists  inevitably  runs  off,  disgust  the  other  wing 
of  Socialism  with  revolution,  and  drive  them  into  "  safe 
and  sane  Socialism  " —  that  is  to  say,  political  reform. 
And  the  terminus  where  they  end  is  equally  depressing. 
They  go  off  into  that  politician's  paradise  —  dickering 
for  votes,  the  emoluments  of  public  office.  Both  wings 
are  destitute  of  a  spiritual  discipline  and  insight.  There- 
fore they  both  come  to  sorry  pass. 

To  each  of  these  abortive  policies,  the  Church  of  the 
Revolution  comes  with  a  program  different  from  either. 
We  refuse  to  lose  faith  in  the  revolution,  and  permit  this 
mighty  folk  uprising  to  flatten  off  into  only  a  reform  party 


40  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

of  office-hungry  politicians.  Neither  will  we  suffer  the 
revolution  to  inflame  into  a  delirium  of  wildness  and  blood. 
We  will  persist  in  revolution.  But  it  shall  be  a  revolution 
in  the  awful  kingdoms  that  are  within,  and  from  whence 
are  the  issues  of  life.  As  I  said  in  my  letter  to  Woelfkin, 
our  warfare  is  not  against  John  D.  Rockefeller.  Our 
warfare  is  against  principalities  and  powers  in  the  realm 
invisible.  Not  against  flesh  and  blood  fight  we;  but 
against  wrong  ideals  and  principles  and  beliefs,  a  devil's 
brood  of  distorted,  timorous,  crawling  ideas  that  have 
taken  possession  of  man's  mental  universe  and  now  are 
nagging  the  entire  human  family  into  insanities  and  self- 
ishnesses without  number. 

Comrades,  I  say  it  unto  you,  the  Church  of  the  Social 
Revolution  is  going  to  prove  itself  the  most  statesmanly 
thing  that  has  happened  in  many  generations.  We  are 
radical  of  the  radicals ;  and  yet  are  safer,  we  are  actually 
more  conservative  than  Bill  Taft  himself.  We  are  the 
saviors  of  the  state.  And  will  be  so  recognized  when  at 
last  the  dust  of  battle  shall  have  lifted,  and  our  methods 
and  motives  shall  come  to  be  judged  in  the  calmness  and 
sunlight  of  r  .son. 

Which  le^as  me  to  a  practical  point.  I  am  dawning 
to  the  fact  that  my  life  here  in  prison  is  bringing  as  one 
of  its  by-products  some  fine  economies.  I'm  not  spending 
any  money.  New  York  City  is  spending  it  for  me.  Yes- 
terday my  total  outlay  was  one  cent,  for  an  evening  paper. 
Board  and  clothes  and  laundry  and  barber  and  soap  and 
lodging  —  the  tax-payers  of  New  York  City  supply  me 
with  these.  Not  very  elaborate  board,  to  be  sure;  and 
as  to  the  clothing  and  bedroom  accommodations,  the  less 
said  about  these,  the  better.  But  I'm  not  spending  money 
for  other  board,  that's  the  point.  And  I  wish  the  Church  to 
be  the  gainer  —  our  church,  where  alone  resides  the  secret 
for  a  happy  issue  out  of  the  afflictions  now  upon  society. 
I'll  keep  some  track  of  what  I  save  every  week,  and  send  it 
to  you.  "  Self-denial  money,"  I'll  call  it.  'Twill  be  fun. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  41 

The  unspeakable  clothes  I  wear  will  transform  into  a 
modish  suit,  if  I  know  that  you  all  are  the  gainers ;  and 
the  prison  fare  (it  almost  chokes  me  at  times)  will  take 
on  a  flavor  of  honey  dew  and  milk  of  paradise.  So  here's 
my  check.  I  figure  that,  by  cutting  out  butter  and  eggs 
and  sugar  and  steaks  and  cake  and  pies  and  car  fare  this 
past  week,  I've  saved  about  $3.65.  Also,  as  I  was  plant- 
ing grass  seed  under  the  warden's  apartment  yesterday, 
some  one  opened  a  window  and,  apparently  taking  com- 
passion on  the  poor  convict  toiling  down  there  in  the  yard, 
threw  me  a  quarter.  I  took  it  —  in  silence,  for  convicts 
are  not  permitted  to  talk  back.  And  am  sending  it  on  to 
you  —  my  check  for  $3.90. 

Yours  for  the  Revolution  Church,  where  alone  is  revolu- 
tion indeed, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  3 
SOCIALISM  IS  A  FELLOWSHIP 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL, 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 
Comrades : 

On  his  visit  to  me  the  other  day,  Comrade  Fieldman 
said,  "  There's  something  strangely  unique  about  this 
church,  Bouck  White.  When  I  speak  to  them,  I  get  a 
response  that  I've  never  received  from  a  Socialist  audi- 
ence. They  are  not  the  ordinary  Socialist  crowd.  With 
their  Socialism  they  blend  something  else.  Or  rather,  it  is 
Socialism  of  an  emotional  swing  and  sweep.  It  is  what 
we  have  long  been  in  need  of." 

From  a  full  heart,  I  echoed  the  sentiment  back  to  him. 
Comrades,  we  are  building  up  a  new  thing  in  the  world. 
Fieldman,  with  his  fine  sensitivity,  and  coming  freshly  to 
us,  has  perceived  it;  and  with  sound  judgment  has  weighed 
it.  This  union  of  Socialism  and  song  is  promissory  of 
something  mightily  worth  while.  It  has  long  been  admit- 
ted that  Socialists  are  an  intellectual  set,  very  much  awake 
on  the  brain  side;  but  alas,  the  heart  within  them  was  not 
equally  developed.  Hence  their  hard  contentious  quality, 
and  the  monotonous  intellectualism  of  their  meetings. 

With  our  appearing,  however,  this  criticism  no  longer 
obtains.  Now,  the  heart  within  us  is  obtaining  its  quota 
of  attention  and  nutriment.  We  yield  not  to  the  most 
mentalized  Socialist  anywhere,  in  the  tightness  and  firm- 
ness of  our  intellects.  But  we  don't  stop  there.  We 
carry  that  intellectualism  to  its  fruition  in  emotion,  and 
imagination's  divine  leap  and  play ;  as  the  stalk  of  a  plant 
is  little  interesting  or  beautiful  until  it  has  climbed  into 
flower.  Socialism  in  bloom  —  that's  what  we  are.  The 
phrase  hits  us  off  patly. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  43 

And  the  immediate  effect  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the 
warmth  and  fellowship  we  cherish  one  to  another.  To  be 
sure  there  still  are  scrappy  spirits  in  our  number;  which 
introduce  sometimes  a  note  of  discord.  But  this  is  be- 
cause we  are  as  yet  a  youngling.  We  have  not  had  time 
to  develop  our  type  of  Socialist.  These  contentious 
spirits  are  no  product  of  ours,  but  have  been  handed  over 
to  us  ready  made.  We  shall  transform  them,  however, 
into  our  own  image.  Or  else  —  as  I  guess  is  already  hap- 
pening —  they  drop  away  one  by  one  and  go  to  their  own. 
Which  loss  to  us  is  no  loss.  Our  church  is  at  this  moment 
bearing  the  battle's  brunt.  We  are  at  grips  with  this 
devil's  civilization  that  now  controls  the  world.  They  own 
the  judges,  the  police,  the  law  courts,  the  jails  and  jailers. 
And  all  this  organized  might  is  arrayed  against  us.  A 
glow  of  solidarity  welding  us  each  to  the  other  is  now  of 
the  first  importance.  And  to  it  every  other  issue  must 
give  way.  At  a  time  like  this,  discordant  spirits  within 
our  group  could  strike  a  mortal  blow.  In  the  gracious 
and  heart  quality  which  our  meetings  should  display,  a 
genial  and  sympathetic  camaraderie,  Besides  our  dis- 
tinctiveness. 

The  church  program  will  go  limpingly,  without  money. 
By  skimping  on  my  diet  and  clothes,  I've  saved  this 
past  week  about  $3.30.  Furthermore,  I  have  cut  out 
a  visit  to  Coney  Island,  which  I  usually  pay  about  this 
time  every  year.  (Not  altogether  voluntarily,  you  un- 
derstand; the  warden  stated  that  prisoners  are  not  per- 
mitted to  go  near  the  place  —  strict  orders  from  the  de- 
partment.) The  trip,  counting  car  fare  both  ways, 
admission  to  Steeplechase,  pop  corn  cakes,  Shoot  the 
Shutes,  Trip  to  the  Moon,  and  the  Fat  Family,  would 
esaily  have  cost  me  a  dollar.  So  here's  my  Self-denial 
Money  for  the  week  —  $4.30. 

In  a  letter  from  one  of  our  members  recently, —  and  I 
value  these  letters  from  you  all,  for  they  tell  me  of  the 
matters  I  should  touch  upon  in  my  letters  to  the  church 


44  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

week  by  week  —  I  have  been  asked,  "  What  is  the  rela- 
tion of  our  church  to  the  organized  Socialist  movement?  " 
I  will  try  to  answer  this  query  in  my  note  to  you  next 
week. 

May  our  God  of  the  Social  Revolution  keep  us  in  the 
fellowship  forevermore. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  4 
A  SOCIALISM  OF  THE  HEART 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL, 

NEW  YOKK  CITY. 
My  Comrades: 

From  one  of  you  has  come  the  query :  "  What  is  the 
relation  of  our  Church  to  the  Socialist  Party?"  The 
comrade  stated  that  it  had  been  put  to  her  by  an  outsider 
with  whom  she  was  doing  propaganda  work  for  the  Church. 
Indeed,  the  matter  suggested  itself  also  to  Comrade  Field- 
man's  active  mind.  In  his  visit  to  me  he  said,  "  Bouck 
White,  this  Church  is  destined  to  growth  beyond  what 
you  dream.  It  will  go  wherever  the  Socialist  Party  has 
gone ;  it  will  be  a  sister  movement  to  the  Party." 

That  image  of  "  brother  and  sister  "  is  not  bad.  It 
pictures  the  two  walking  side  by  side,  each  holding  the 
hand  of  the  other;  mutually  aiding,  counseling,  comfort- 
ing —  in  a  word,  supplementing  each  other ;  as  do  brother 
and  sister,  when  knit  in  the  glow  of  sweetest  fellowship, 
each  being  stronger  because  of  the  other ;  therefore  I  was 
grateful  to  him  for  the  figure.  But  I  expressed  the  rela- 
tion more  intensively  still.  "  Yes,"  said  I  to  him,  "  you 
have  hit  it  patly :  the  two  are  to  be  side-partners ;  but  it 
is  more  than  a  pal-ship;  something  even  closer  than  that 
of  a  sister  to  a  brother.  The  Church  of  the  Revolution 
is  destined  to  be  the  soul,  of  which  the  Socialist  Party  is 
the  body." 

What  the  body  is  without  a  soul,  that  is  what  Socialism 
was  before  we  appeared;  which  confirms  the  word  with 
which  Fieldman  followed  up  his  declaration.  "  As  soon 
as  I  saw  this  Church,"  said  he,  "  I  discerned  that  it  is  the 

thing  we  have  for  long  time  been  needing."     And  his  dis- 

45 


46  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

cernment  was  sound.  The  body,  when  there  is  no  soul 
inside,  begins  to  die.  And  in  like  manner  unmistakable 
tokens  of  mortality  had  been  manifest  of  late  in  the  So- 
cialist movement.  Not  in  loss  of  numbers.  No;  nu- 
merically her  growth  has  been  astounding.  But  it  has 
been  attended  by  a  loss  of  conviction.  She  has  been  de- 
clining into  a  reform  party.  More  and  more,  she  has 
waged  her  campaigns  by  promising  to  the  electorate,  if 
put  into  power,  to  tinker  up  many  a  weak  place  in  the 
present  order. 

Now  I  am  a  believer  in  political  action.  The  settle- 
ment of  a  dispute,  in  the  orderly  method  of  counting 
noses  —  votes  dropped  in  a  hat  —  is  the  one  civilized  and 
civilizing  mode.  We  need  to  capture  the  political  ma- 
chinery. But  we  need  likewise  to  capture  humankind's 
mental  machinery.  A  Socialism  of  the  hand,  and  a  So- 
cialism of  the  heart  —  there  is  the  full-orbed  program 
which  now  for  the  first  time  we  offer  to  the  world.  Until 
the  Revolution  Church,  Socialism  hobbled  like  a  man  with 
one  leg.  Now  the  other  leg  is  added;  and  will  more  than 
double  his  speed  and  strength  and  usefulness.  The  ma- 
terial-minded crowd,  therefore,  who  hail  with  joy  our 
church's  advent  as  a  means  of  rounding  out  and  illuminat- 
ing the  party's  economic  propaganda,  are  wise  and  of  great 
understanding. 

But  as  the  body  is  dead  without  a  soul  inside  to  shine 
through,  so  in  the  contrary  direction  the  soul  is  helpless 
without  a  body  as  its  organ  and  instrument.  This  puts 
a  difference  between  us  and  churches  of  the  old  sort.  The 
religion  they  foster  is  a  disembodied  thing,  having  no  con- 
tact with  actuality;  it  is  thin,  anemic,  ghost-like,  hover- 
ing over  the  habitation  of  men,  but  eluding  all  attempts 
to  harness  it  to  the  uses  of  the  world.  Therefore  the 
spiritual-minded  crowd  are  rallying  to  the  Revolution 
Church  as  the  channel  through  which  their  pent-up  ideal- 
ism can  flow  down  into  the  thirsty  landscape  of  earth. 

Will  the  Socialist  Party  take  kindly  to  this  attempt  to. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  47 

put  a  soul  under  its  ribs,  that  shall  intensify  it  into  a 
non-compromising  revolutionary  stand  at  every  moment? 
Well,  some  of  them  will  not.  Already  they  are  fighting 
us.  They  perceive  in  us  something  new  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  and  are  distrustful.  They  would  be  content 
to  capture  merely  a  man's  vote.  We  go  gunning  to  cap- 
ture the  man  entire,  from  toe  to  top,  inside  and  out.  We 
insist  that  a  man's  Socialism  must  be  as  big  as  the  uni- 
verse. It  is  not  something  he  can  put  on  and  off  for  elec- 
tion day  only,  like  a  suit  of  clothes ;  but  is  a  new  outlook 
upon  life,  and  must  affect  all  his  acts,  and  every  thought 
he  thinks.  Perhaps  this  kind  of  Socialism  will  not  win 
mayoralty  campaigns  as  quickly  as  the  other  kind.  But 
it  will  be  a  victory  worth  the  winning  when  it  does  arrive, 
instead  of  the  commonplace  and  disillusioning  thing  some 
of  our  premature  victories  on  election  day  have  been. 

Others  in  the  party,  perceiving  this  need  for  a  redder 
and  deeper  Socialism,  are  welcoming  our  church.  I  per- 
ceive that  the  party  in  New  York  is  thinking  of  naming 
me  as  candidate  for  Congress.  That  is  a  tribute  to  our 
church;  and  as  such  I  am  glad.  My  ideals  for  my  own 
life-work  are  not  at  all  in  the  direction  of  political  office. 
Politics  does  not  create.  It  merely  expresses  the  view- 
point that  has  already  been  created  in  the  mind  of  the 
people.  I  am  ambitious  of  having  a  part  on  the  creative 
side,  leaving  to  others  to  write  it  into  laws  and  acts  of 
state.  None  the  less,  I  should  be  happy  at  the  honor  paid 
to  our  church  if  I  were  named  for  the  office.  Because  it 
would  demonstrate  that  the  Socialists,  even  in  infidel  New 
York,  are  perceiving  the  substantial  contribution  that  will 
come  to  the  movement  when,  to  the  party  of  social  revo- 
lution is  added  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution;  a 
combination  that  will  spell  revolution  indeed. 

There  is  still  a  further  way,  and  a  most  direct  one, 
wherein  our  church  will  help  the  Socialist  Party  and  the 
movement  for  social  reconstruction  generally ;  that  is,  by 
connecting  this  movement  with  the  positive,  the  believing, 


48  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

the  faith  side  of  human  nature ;  and  so  redeeming  it  from 
the  squint  of  irreligion  and  infidelity  that  has  formerly 
attached  to  it.  But  this  is  a  big  subject,  and  I'll  try  to 
devote  an  entire  letter  to  it,  unless  you  send  me  queries 
covering  other  points  you  wish  me  to  touch. 

My  self-denial  check  this  week  is  for  $3.95.  Fifty 
cents  of  it  was  real  self-denial,  for  the  other  of  course  is 
only  make-believe,  since  I  couldn't  buy  butter  or  sugar  or 
eggs  if  I  tried.  The  mosquitoes  of  the  night  have  been 
very  predatory  in  this  neighborhood  of  late.  Our  cells  were 
not  exactly  architectured  to  promote  ventilation  or  cool 
slumbers  on  a  hot  night,  being  dry  goods  boxes  of  plate 
iron,  open  at  one  end;  tier  upon  tier,  like  cells  in  a  honey- 
comb. (Whenever  a  prisoner  turns  over  in  his  cell  at 
night  and  hits  the  plate-iron  siding,  the  reverberation 
booms  through  the  whole  prison. )  Well,  the  only  protec- 
tion one  has  from  mosquitoes  is  to  cover  himself,  head  and 
all,  under  the  blanket;  which,  being  a  thick  coarse  horse 
blanket,  makes  the  hot  cell  hotter.  (If  only  we  had  a 
sheet  to  crawl  under,  it  wouldn't  be  so  bad ;  but  it  has  been 
so  long  since  I've  seen  a  bed  with  a  sheet  on  it,  I've  forgot- 
ten what  they  look  like.)  Therefore  I  was  planning  to 
invest  fifty  cents  in  some  citronella,  to  rub  on  me  as  pro- 
tection from  the  winged  visitors,  and  so  be  able  to  lie  all 
uncovered.  Then  I  thought,  "  Here's  a  chance  —  the  first 
you've  really  had,  Bouck  White, —  to  save  some  money 
by  real  self-denial."  So  I  turned  the  temptation  down. 
And  would  you  believe  it,  that  next  night  it  turned  cool 
and  delightful.  Not  a  mosquito  sang  in  my  cell  all  night ; 
and  I  had  the  first  good  sleep  in  several  days.  Which 
shows  that  it  is  profitable  to  save  and  turn  money  into  the 
Church.  And  now  comes  word  that  some  mosquito  netting 
is  being  sent  me  by  mail.  So  even  this  self-denial  didn't 
prove  to  be  the  real  thing. 

Yours  for  the  sacred  rebellion,  and  the  Church  that  is 
to  ignite  and  protect  and  control  it, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  5 
OUTBREAK  OF  THE  WAR  IN  EUROPE 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 
QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL, 
My  Comrades: 

The  news  from  Europe  must  have  put  to  every  one  of 
you  the  query,  What  bearing  has  it  on  our  Revolution 
Church?  It  is  a  fact  of  high  significance,  that  we  and  our 
church  program  are  concerned  whenever  an  event  trans- 
pires in  the  world.  A  bomb  explosion,  an  election,  a  war  — 
whatever  it  be,  we  instinctively  ask,  What  light  does  this 
throw  on  the  soundness  and,  permanency  of  the  principle 
around  which  our  church  fellowship  is  organized?  It  is  a 
sign  that  we  are  square  in  the  explosive  center  of  twentieth 
century  affairs.  Lines  of  contact  radiate  from  us  to 
every  department  of  life.  Whatever  touches  humanity 
touches  us.  Modern  of  the  moderns,  the  cross  currents  in 
this  rushing,  impetuous  age  sweep  upon  us.  For  we  are  in 
the  midmost  thicket  of  affairs.  We  refuse  to  be  cloistered 
in  monastic  aloofness.  In  reverence  I  say  it:  the  news- 
paper is  our  bible;  the  God  of  our  worship  is  the  Spirit 
of  the  time,  the  Soul  of  this  wonderful,  tumultuous  To-day. 

The  war  that  embroils  Europe  is  nothing  less  than  the 
breaking  down  of  European  civilization.  We  Socialists 
have  long  been  saying  that  this  thing  called  civilization 
was  not  civilization  at  all.  Based  on  competitive  strife, 
it  was  purely  the  law  of  the  jungle  taken  over  by  humans 
as  their  rule  of  action.  Laughed  to  scorn,  we  persisted 
in  our  affirmation.  And  now  the  scoffer  turns  to  us  with 
apology ;  he  scoffs  no  longer.  In  one  week  the  mask  with 
which  commercialism  had  for  so  long  disguised  itself,  is 

rent  asunder.     And  the  savagery  underneath  comes  hide- 

49 


50  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

ously  to  vision.  Nations  which  plumed  themselves  to  be 
of  Christ,  are  seen  to  be  anti-Christ ;  their  civilization  was 
veriest  uncivilization ;  that  which  called  itself  Christendom, 
was  in  reality  devildom.  Long  back  we  were  saying  this ; 
and  were  the  world's  derision.  Now  hell  has  burst  out, 
and  all  the  devils  are  loose. 

This  discovery  of  how  thin  and  insubstantial  a  thing 
is  present-day  civilization,  brings  home  the  necessity  of 
our  church,  as  nothing  else  that  has  happened  in  a  hun- 
dred years  could  have  done.  Sooner  than  was  expected, 
the  old  order  is  breaking  up.  And  with  a  crash  that  lends 
almost  a  note  of  melodrama.  We  looked  for  a  long  and 
slow  decline  in  the  patient.  His  end  promises  to  come, 
the  rather,  in  fashion  brusque  and  thrilling. 

With  the  passing  of  the  old,  a  new  order  of  intelligence 
will  be  needed.  The  Revolution  Church  came  up  not  a 
moment  too  soon.  For  we  are  the  constructors  of  the 
humanity  of  to-morrow.  The  Socialist  Party  will  build 
the  new  economic  system.  We  in  turn  are  building  the 
new  type  of  man  to  work  that  system.  Our  appearing 
is  a  promise  that  the  world  will  not  be  left  void  and  naked ; 
titanic  war  is  stripping  from  the  human  race  its  old  and 
tattered  clothes ;  we  meanwhile  are  sewing  a  new  garment, 
when  the  old  shall  have  been  rent  away.  As  a  tree  de- 
nuded of  leaves  by  the  winds  of  winter,  the  tree  leafless 
would  present  a  bleak  appearance;  but  inside,  a  tide  of 
strange  warm  sap  sets  in;  green  buds  appear;  and  the 
tree  is  raimented  anew.  What  springtime  is  to  a  forest 
worn  by  the  decays  of  autumn  and  desolated  by  the  wild 
gales  of  winter,  our  Church  of  the  Revolution  is  to  human- 
kind in  this  hour  of  her  bereavement  and  crisis. 

That  this  nine-power  war  in  Europe  sounds  the  passing 
of  the  old  regime  and  the  coming  of  a  new  and  democratic 
ordering,  is  the  testimony  even  of  so  conservative  an  or- 
gan as  the  New  York  Times.  Many  of  you  read  those 
editorial  words  in  it  this  morning.  From  such  a  source 
they  are  of  premier  importance;  and  I  quote  them  here: 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  51 

"  The  war  is  the  direct  and  apparently  the  inevitable  re- 
sult of  competitive  armament.  Such  armament  has  been 
dictated  in  large  part  by  the  ruling  classes,  who  are  least 
exposed  to  the  terrible  consequences  of  war,  and  who  have 
conceived  or  inherited  ambitions,  animosities,  appetites,  in 
which  the  common  people  do  not  consciously  share.  It  is 
not  at  all  beyond  the  limits  of  reasonable  speculation  to 
infer  that  by  this  lesson  the  general  mind  of  the  world 
may  be  so  deeply  revolted  that  the  political  systems  in 
Europe  that  have  left  the  precious  welfare  of  the  common 
people  to  a  class  that  do  not  share  the  common  burdens, 
may  be  cast  off." 

Positively,  we  are  living  in  the  most  wonderful  age  in 
history.  It  is  a  culminating  era.  The  old  is  dying.  The 
new  is  struggling  to  be  born.  In  a  theater  wide  as  the 
world,  the  drama  is  being  staged ;  and  amid  an  impressive 
setting  of  properties  and  scenery.  To  be  living  at  a  time 
like  this,  is  privilege.  But  to  have  a  part  in  the  drama 
—  that  is  very  heaven.  This  joy  is  the  possession  of 
every  member  of  the  Revolution  Church.  We  are  in  the 
middle  of  the  stream;  are  caught  in  the  eager,  splendid 
current.  On  this  account,  people  of  low  mental  and  spirit- 
ual vitality  are  frightened  away  from  us.  They  desire 
a  church  where  they  won't  have  to  think  —  and  they  can 
find  that  sort  a-plenty.  Our  conception  of  Church  is  an 
engine  that  gears  onto  the  time's  centermost  machinery. 
We  alteringly  affect  the  flow  of  the  ages.  We  are  making 
new  ideals  for  a  new  world  that  is  hastening  to  birth.  We 
will  recast  humankind,  when  it  shall  have  been  dismem- 
bered and  shattered  by  the  strife  of  nations. 

Signs  are  many  that  the  general  war  now  at  blaze  across 
the  ocean  is  going  to  shift  the  center  of  civilization  from 
Europe  to  America.  It  is  a  melancholy  way  in  which  to 
lift  oneself  —  at  the  cost  of  another's  downfall.  But  facts 
will  be  what  they  will  be.  Already  in  the  space  of  a  week 
we  are  becoming  chief  among  the  nations  as  carrier  of  the 
world's  commerce.  With  the  stoppage  of  industry  abroad, 


52  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

our  factories  will  belch  an  augmented  breath  of  flame  and 
smoke.  The  world's  banking  center  will  shift  to  our 
shores.  And  this  probably  for  all  time.  The  war  will 
lay  Europe  panting  in  the  dust ;  whichever  side  wins,  there 
will  be  a  legacy  of  sores  and  hates  and  envies  that  will 
perpetuate  the  sadness  and  the  prostration. 

This  shift  to  us  of  the  world's  center  of  gravity  in 
things  material  will  be  accompanied  by  a  like  shift  in  things 
in  the  empire  of  the  mind.  The  universities  of  Europe, 
her  schools  of  every  kind  and  degree,  her  halls  of  science, 
her  art  and  literature,  all  the  finer  flowerings  of  the  mind 
of  man,  will  suffer  eclipse  in  the  night  of  blood  that  is 
darkening  over  her.  Her  Socialism  will  share  in  the  same 
fatal  collapse.  Hitherto  we  have  looked  to  Europe  as 
the  guide  and  formative  influence  in  the  Socialist  move- 
ment. But  the  comrades  there  are  going  to  be  sucked 
down  in  the  whirlpool  that  is  engulfing  every  other  part 
of  Europe's  life.  Witness  the  taking  off  of  Jaures,  not 
least  of  last  week's  packed  and  crowded  sorrow. 

This  means  thai  as  America  henceforth  will  take  a  world 
leadership  in  nearly  all  things  else,  so  she  will  be  called 
upon  from  this  time  forth  to  be  the  leader  in  Socialism 
also.  We  will  no  longer  be  able  to  look  to  Europe  to 
formulate  our  doctrines.  Europe,  and  the  rest  of  the 
world  as  well,  will  begin  to  look  to  us.  And  what  shall  be 
America's  contribution  to  the  theory  and  practice  of  So- 
cialism? Something  in  the  realm  of  the  economic?  Hardly 
shall  anything  new  be  added  to  the  ground  plan  in  the 
realm  dealt  with  by  Lassalle  and  Engel  and  Marx.  I  am 
clear  that  America's  distinctive  contribution  is  going  to  be 
in  things  of  the  spirit.  The  genius  of  America  anyway 
is  shot  through  with  a  religious  tang  and  coloring.  It  is 
our  mission,  now  that  world  leadership  is  being  thrust  upon 
us,  to  summon  Socialism  out  of  the  low  ground  of  a  purely 
materialistic  program,  to  the  uplands  of  aspiration, 
where  the  spirit  can  stretch  its  wings  in  its  native  ether. 
Comrades,  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution,  from  New 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  53 

York  City  as  its  cradle,  and  in  this  most  important  era 
in  history,  is  of  parentage  other  than  mortal ;  she  has  been 
born  to  fulfill  a  large  destiny. 

I  have  saved  $4.00  this  week  and  gladly  contribute  it 
to  her  treasury. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  6 

CALL  TO  A  DANGEROUS  AND  DIVINE 
ADVENTURE 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

I'm  wondering  if  you  appraise  as  weightily  as  it  de- 
serves, the  fact  that  every  week  since  my  arrest  has  seen 
new  members  signing  The  Covenant  and  j  oining  themselves 
to  our  church.  It  means  courage  and  no  trivial  degree 
of  determination.  To  be  sure,  even  from  our  first  meet- 
ing we  emphasized  the  dangerousness  of  the  mission  into 
which  our  church  summoned  the  people.  But  by  some 
this  was  not  taken  seriously.  They  joined  the  Church 
lightly,  as  one  joins  a  social  club.  Then  came  our  first 
clash  with  the  rulers  of  this  present  world.  Instantly, 
the  faces  of  some  in  our  membership  went  pale  as  an  oys- 
ter. One,  holding  official  position,  made  feverish  haste 
to  resign,  and  ran  to  cover,  out  of  the  reach  of  peril  that 
might  be  impending.  And  a  number  of  the  others  caught 
a  severe  cold  in  the  feet. 

Now  at  last  the  perilous  and  contraband  quality  of  the 
movement  we  are  initiating  is  known  of  all.  Heroism  is 
positively  an  essential  in  any  one  entering  our  church. 
Without  any  help  on  our  part,  the  standard  of  entrance 
has  been  automatically  tightened.  Some  no  doubt  pre- 
dicted to  themselves  that,  with  its  leader  in  prison,  our 
church  was  as  good  as  killed;  for  no  one  would  dare  to 
join. 

But  what  say  the  facts?  On  the  first  Sunday  of  the 
prison  chapter  in  our  history,  two  score  valorous  souls 
fought  their  way  to  the  platform  in  their  eagerness  to  join. 
And  altogether  over  two  hundred  have  added  their  splen- 
did names  to  our  roll  in  these  last  three  months. 

54 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  55 

Had  a  like  number  joined  one  of  the  middle-class 
churches,  the  fact  would  have  received  headlines  in  their 
denominational  paper.  The  contrast  gains  an  augmented 
significance  when  it  is  remembered  that  to  join  a  middle- 
class  church  is  to  enter  the  ranks  of  respectability. 
Whereas  to  join  us  means  to  make  oneself  of  no  account, 
renounce  social  climbing,  and  embrace  danger,  even  out- 
lawry, in  the  terrific  pathway  of  revolution. 

Say  I  not  rightly,  therefore:  They  who  join  our  church 
now,  and  the  aforetime  members  who  have  not  faltered  in 
this  our  march  into  the  danger  zone,  are  a  choice  and 
sifted  company.  Great  events  are  impending  upon  earth. 
The  Revolution  Church  shall  have  a  part  therein.  Our 
membership  is  made  up  of  those  who  dare  to  stand  for  the 
right  when  the  right  is  unpopular.  Souls  of  that  texture 
are  the  makers  of  history. 

A  greeting,  therefore,  to  all  the  former  comrades  that 
have  stuck,  and  to  the  newcomers  among  us.  Of  refined 
and  tested  metal  you  are  compounded.  It  will  be  a  high 
moment  in  my  life  when  I  am  permitted  to  feel  your  hand 
in  mine.  In  the  testing  time  you  have  not  been  found 
wanting.  Together  we  shall  do  a  day's  work  of  some 
greatness,  for  our  God  and  his  blood-bright  banner. 

It  must  be  increasingly  clear  to  all  of  us,  that  the  Con- 
tinental War  now  ablaze  in  Europe,  makes  the  Revolution 
Church  not  only  possible  but  imperative.  For  a  few 
weeks,  probably,  our  path  will  be  made  more  thorny.  We 
shall  share  in  the  eclipse  that  overtakes  all  things  of  the 
spirit  and  of  mental  culture,  when  war  smoke  rolls  up  and 
cannons  boom.  But  the  net  result  is  going  to  be  favor- 
able to  us.  The  war  is  training  the  imagination  of  men 
to  vision  things  on  a  scale  of  some  scope  and  grandeur. 
That  is  a  direct  preparation  for  our  gospel ;  for  our  gospel 
is  not  understandable  except  by  minds  of  wide  outlook, 
and  disciplined  to  think  in  world  terms. 

Also  the  passing  of  the  old  order  ("passing"  is  too 
mild  a  term ;  this  present  world  is  being  exploded  from  off 


56  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

the  face  of  the  earth;  victim  of  its  own  inventiveness,  in 
devising  high-powered  methods  of  cutting  each  other's 
throat),  the  passing  of  old  institutions,  will  make  new  ones 
requisite.  Have  you  noticed  how  negligible  has  been  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  in  this  business?  The  crisis  has 
published  to  the  world  the  impotency  of  that  hierarchy,  as 
an  influence  longer  in  human  affairs.  An  old  man  sits  in 
the  Vatican,  pathetic  in  his  powerlessness,  as  he  sees  mil- 
lions of  his  own  people  on  each  side  prepare  bloodily  to 
exterminate  each  other.  It  declares  that,  over  large  areas 
of  the  earth,  and  areas  once  ultra-Romanist,  the  Church  of 
the  Tiber  is  a  spent  force,  living  in  the  past ;  an  old  age  of 
decline  and  swift  decrepitude.  We  shall  be  well  advised 
to  gird  ourselves  to  take  over  the  spiritual  guardianship 
and  moral  nurture  of  the  peoples,  when  the  Roman  Church 
with  dying  hand  lets  go.  When  this  catastrophic  war  is 
terminated,  we  shall  hear  not  only  the  cry  of  kings  upon 
their  crumbling  thrones ;  the  noise  of  falling  may  be  heard 
also  from  the  papal  monarch.  In  this  war  the  passing  of 
Roman  Catholicism  is  foreshadowed.  Of  that)  world-wide 
institution  we  shall  be  the  supplanter. 

My  self-denial  check  this  week  is  for  $4.05. 

Your  leader  in  the  perilous,  the  sacred,  the  glorious 
adventure. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 

Don't  send  me  any  more  Calls.  It  seems  that  the 
warden  has  stopped  daily  papers.  But  magazines  are 
reaching  me.  The  covers  are  stripped  away,  so  that  I 
know  not  the  senders.  Please  thank  the  Comrades,  for 
me  and  for  the  other  grateful  convicts  here,  to  whom  I 
pass  the  good  things  along. 

B.W. 


NO.  7 

IN  PLACE  OF  BLOODSHED,  WE  GIVE 
BROTHERHOOD 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

I  have  a  few  minutes  in  my  cell,  after  the  noonday  meal, 
ere  the  keeper  calls  our  gang  to  the  afternoon's  work. 
Am  seizing  the  moment  to  telj  you  that  I  am  thinking  of 
you;  and  often. 

Indeed,  the  news  from  Europe  [the  war]  throws  me  back 
upon  our  church  and  the  Revolution,  as  the  one  release 
from  the  mess  capitalism  has  made  of  things.  Moreover, 
there  is  a  family  connection  between  the  Colorado  war  and 
the  European  war.  Both  had  their  rootage  in  economic 
causes.  Both  were  inevitable,  so  long  as  civilization  is 
permitted  to  remain  on  a  basis  of  competition.  Throat- 
cutting  is  the  term  business  men  apply  to  their  trade 
rivalries.  And  that  is  also  war's  exact  picture  and  defini- 
tion. 

The  world-conflict  now  at  rage  promises  to  get 
worse  before  it  can  get  better.  It  will  continue  to  suck 
in  to  itself  the  interest  of  every  intelligent  intellect,  ab- 
sorbing the  lion's  share  of  attention. 

Here  is  a  difference  between  us  and  the  churches  of 
capitalism.  To  them  this  war  is  humiliation  unspeakable. 
They  have  been  the  moral  monitors,  the  ethical  teachers 
of  Christendom.  And  this  is  the  outcome  of  the  brand  of 
morality  they  have  handed  out.  With  us,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  war  is  a  vindication.  It  attests  the  sureness  of 
our  prophecy  and  the  wisdom  of  our  course.  I  tell  you 
truly,  more  minds  than  we  realize  are  turned  toward  us 
to-day  and  to  our  proposal  to  revolutionize  the  basis  of  the 

57 


58  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

world's  life;  and  they  are  some  of  the  soberest  and  bril- 
liantest  minds  in  the  country.  There  is  nothing  now  can 
keep  our  church  from  victory,  if  we  will  but  hold  fast  our 
fellowship  one  with  another,  and  be  loyal.  Every  shot 
fired  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe,  every  life  that  is  taken, 
every  house  that  is  demolished,  every  harvest  field  that  is 
trampled,  every  bridge  that  is  destroyed,  is  an  argument 
for  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution.  And  brings  our 
triumph  nearer. 

Check  of  self-denial,  $4.00. 

Yours  for  the  Overturn,  that  shall  supplant  this  world 
of  bloodshed  with  a  world  of  brotherhood. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  8 
PRISON  PICTURES 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL, 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 
My  Comrades: 

Have  just  opened  the  basket  of  fruit  brought  to  me  in 
your  name  this  morning.  Naturally,  therefore,  am  writ- 
ing this  in  a  most  cheery  state  of  mind.  The  basket 
contains  nine  oranges,  three  pears,  six  bananas,  and  two 
packages  of  raisins.  Who  wouldn't  be  happy?  Of 
course,  this  will  be  the  only  basket  allowed  me  for  the  next 
ten  days.  I  will  have  to  go  a  bit  miserly  with  it.  But  it 
divides  up  into  one  orange  and  twelve  raisins  each  and 
every  day,  with  sometimes  an  extra. 

It  would  astonish  you,  when  one  is  deprived  of  sugar 
whole  months  at  a  time,  how  toothsome  is  a  piece  of  fruit. 
The  other  day  one  of  the  convicts  that  works  in  the 
kitchen  had  some  prunes  in  his  pocket  and  gave  me  some. 
I  guess  the  keeper  must  have  locked  the  storeroom  now, 
for  he  never  appears  with  any  more.  Once  a  week  we 
have  a  supper  of  five  prunes  apiece,  a  hunk  of  dry  bread, 
and  black  unseasoned  coffee.  The  only  other  sign  of 
sweets  in  the  whole  week  is  dried  apple  sauce  —  the 
teeniest,  weeniest  portion  —  for  supper  on  Sunday  nights. 
A  report  was  spread  from  one  of  the  prisoners  in  the  store- 
room gang,  last  week,  that  maggots  had  got  into  the  dried 
apples.  But  I  couldn't  find  one  in  mine  Sunday  night; 
the  dish  tasted  perfectly  fine.  Dried  apple  sauce  is  looked 
down  upon,  by  people  out  in  the  world.  But  I  can  tell 
you,  we  don't  despise  it  here.  Why,  that  Sunday  night 
supper  of  apple  sauce  and  dried  bread  is  looked  forward 
to  the  whole  week  long.  I  sometimes  wish,  on  cold  fall 
or  winter  nights,  they  would  give  me  more  bed  clothing. 

59 


60  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

All  we  have  is  two  blankets  each.  One  of  them  you  have 
to  fold  up  to  sleep  on,  as  a  bed.  Which  leaves  only  one 
solitary  blanket  to  cover  you.  And  you  can't  get  out  of 
your  cell  to  shut  windows,  if  a  cold  windy  wave  should  come 
up  in  the  night.  You  just  have  to  lie  still  and  take  it; 
unless  you  are  able  to  get  a  keeper  to  shut  it  for  you. 
Keepers  are  not  very  popular  among  prisoners.  Not  al- 
together a  keeper's  fault  either.  He  has  a  thankless  job. 
Suspiciousness  is  his  normal  state  of  mind.  Sometimes 
when  I  am  awake  at  night,  and  the  keeper  coming  along  on 
his  rounds  steers  a  flash  light  in  on  me,  and  into  my  eyes, 
I  get  enraged  enough  to  hit  him  plumb  in  the  face,  if  I 
could  only  reach  him  through  the  bars.  But  then,  on 
reflection,  I  am  compelled  to  admit  that  he  is  in  the  right. 
His  job  is  to  see  that  we  are  all  here.  And  he  has  to  pry 
with  his  searchlight  into  every  cell. 

Comrades,  in  some  way  we  have  got  to  reach  the  pris- 
oners now  in  a  thousand  prisons.  Our  church  believes  in 
getting  down  to  the  lowermost  man.  We  are  not  strong 
on  kid  gloves,  but  are  strong  on  a  warm  hand  held  forth  to 
the  people  struggling  at  the  bottom.  I  am  sure  I  shall 
never  forget  the  prison  lad,  now  that  I  am  in  contact  with 
him  on  so  friendly  and  constant  a  footing.  Perhaps  that 
was  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  Most  High,  in  causing  me 
to  enter  into  this  place.  Sights  are  searing  themselves 
into  my  brain,  that  will  be  with  me  at  all  times  henceforth. 
Our  church  is  called  to  a  many-branched  and  marvelous 
work.  And  one  of  these  must  be  to  "  them  that  are  in 
prison."  For  the  most  part  they  are  normal.  Circum- 
stances, more  than  aught  of  incurable  badness  within,  have 
brought  them  here.  Many  of  them,  I  am  certain,  will  re- 
spond to  an  appeal  such  as  our  church  will  know  how  to 
frame.  I  am  not  now  suggesting  methods.  I  wish  the 
rather  to  get  your  minds  working  along  this  line;  to  the 
end  that  some  helpful  sparks  may  be  struck.  Self-denial 
this  week,  $3.75.  Yours  in  the  Faith, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  9 

THE  PROGRESSIVE  PARTY  BELONGS  IN 
OUR  CAMP 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

Comes  a  request  this  morning  that  I  deny  a  statement 
which  seemingly  has  been  put  in  circulation,  that  I  have 
accepted  the  nomination  of  the  Progressive  Party,  for 
Congress.  I  here  make  the  denial.  Even  the  news  of 
such  a  thing  had  not  reached  me. 

The  affair  brings  to  my  pen  a  matter  of  which  I  have 
been  wishing  to  write  you  for  some  time.  The  Progressive 
Party  is  dying.  Those  of  you  who  have  been  following 
the  newspapers  (every  member  of  our  church  should  read 
a  daily  newspaper)  know  that  evidences  of  the  death  agony 
of  the  Bull  Moose  are  plentiful.  A  vote  fast  dwindling 
to  the  vanishing  point;  the  Hinman  fiasco  at  Saratoga; 
the  resignation  of  their  candidate  for  Governor  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  favor  of  an  old  Party  nominee;  fusion  in  New 
York  City  —  these  are  the  death  rattle  of  the  Progressive 
Party  as  a  political  entity. 

Which  event  has,  if  you  will  consider  attentively,  an 
immediate  bearing  on  our  church.  For  these  Progres- 
sives, when  the  tree-trunk  now  bearing  them  falls  to  earth, 
must  go  somewhere.  Some  of  them  will  go  over  to  the 
Party  of  President  Wilson.  Some  few  will  go  back  to  the 
Republicans.  A  great  mass  of  them  ought  to  drop  into 
the  Socialist  basket.  Provided  —  And  here  is  where  the 
Revolution  Church  enters  the  transaction. 

The  Progressive  Party  is  made  up  in  large  part  of 
people  who  are  essentially  religious.  Their  first  conven- 
tion in  Chicago,  where  they  sang  hymns  and  proclaimed 

61 


62  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

themselves  an  Armageddon  host  battling  for  the  Lord, 
gives  vivid  and  unmistakable  evidence.  Their  numbers 
were  swelled,  to  be  sure,  by  many  disgruntled  politicians  — 
that  had  failed  of  preferment  in  the  old  parties.  But, 
making  every  deduction,  it  is  safe  to  say  —  that  no  politi- 
cal movement  in  our  history  ever  assembled  so  many  of 
the  devoutly  idealist  temperament,  as  did  the  National 
Progressive  Party.  The  natural  path  for  these  to  take, 
now  that  their  present  campi  is  breaking  up,  is  Socialism. 
But  Socialism,  to  their  mind,  has  come  to  be  coupled  with 
an  anti-religious  temper.  Nor  can  one  blame  them  for 
such  a  notion.  Many  a,  Socialist  speaker  and  writer  has 
given  the  world  full  reason  to  hold  such  a  belief  concerning 
us.  They  have  gone  out  of  their  way  to  affront  the 
deeper,  the  reverential  instinct  in  the  human  heart.  So 
that  Socialism,  in  the  minds  of  the  outside  world,  has  come 
to  be  identified  with  a  hard  and  doctrinaire  materialism, 
sordid  and  graceless. 

At  no  time  did  such  a  picture  do  us  more  harm  than  it 
is  doing  at  present.  For  it  is  likely  to  keep  thousands  of 
Progressives  out  of  our  ranks,  now  at  a  time  when  natu- 
rally we  could  look  for  them  to  turn  their  faces  hither- 
ward.  At  present  they  are  attracted  by  Socialism's  politi- 
cal idealism;  but  are  repelled  by  the  materialist  meta- 
physic  with  which  we  have  coupled  up  that  politicalism. 

It  is  in  such  a  juncture  our  church  can  render  to 
Socialism  a  memorable  service.  We  are  a  refutation  of 
the  libel  that  Socialism  and  infidelity  are  natural-born 
mates.  Our  existence  declares  to  the  world  that  the  red 
host  international  is  very  God  of  very  God.  We  deny 
that  Socialism  is  anti-religious.  We  go  further.  We 
deny  that  it  is  even  non-religious.  Basing  our  position 
upon  modern  biblical  scholarship,  and  the  most  recent 
findings  of  psychologists  and  historians,  as  well  as  the 
testimony  spoken  by  our  own  souls  within  us,  we  affirm 
Socialism  to  be  the  lineal  offspring  of  the  worthiest  re- 
ligious tradition  of  the  ages ;  and  that  it  is  pioneering 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  63 

the  path  which  mankind  to-day  must  take,  in  order  to  re- 
gain unshakable  foundations  for  faith,  and  a  spiritual 
understanding  and  vision. 

Comrades,  it  is  the  psychological  moment  for  such  a 
proclamation.  The  Progressive  Party  is  looking  for  a 
new  home,  a  new  expression  of  its  spirit.  If  we  can  utter 
our  message  with  a  continental  voice,  we  shall  turn  thou- 
sands of  them  into  the  Socialist  fold.  We  have  not  a 
moment  to  lose.  Their  minds  now  are  at  teeter,  in  the 
crisis  of  indecision.  If  we  keep  silent,  or  utter  our  message 
feebly,  most  of  them  will  go  over  to  the  Democratic  Party, 
that  hopeless  home  for  their  spirits;  there  the  fine  flame 
of  idealism  now  glowing  within  them  will  by  little  and  little 
be  quenched.  And  the  world  will  be  defeated  of  the  con- 
tribution to  its  aspiration  and  upreach,  which  they  had  it 
in  them  to  make. 

From  a  hundred  directions,  signs  and  voices  are  con- 
verging to  declare  that  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolu- 
tion has  come  to  birth  at  an  opportune  hour.  Never  did 
the  interests  of  mankind  speak  more  loudly.  Never  was 
a  Church  called  into  being  by  needs  so  manifold  and  so 
piteously  pleading.  The  call  presented  to  us  by  the  crisis 
at  this  moment  in  the  Progressive  Party,  is  the  one  to 
which  I  confine  my  pen  this  week.  And  it  is  not  a  slight 
call.  Some  of  the  ablest  intelligences  and  finest  spirits  in 
America  joined  the  Bull  Moose  movement.  Their  inclu- 
sion in  Socialism  would  bring  to  the  comrade  cause  an 
accession  of  brain  and  heart  and  executive  power,  beyond 
price. 

Self-denial  check  this  week,  $4.05. 

Yours  in  the  Holiest  and  Highest  task  of  our  Genera- 
tion, BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  10 
SOCIALISM  SET  TO  MUSIC 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

"  Tell  us,  Bouck  White  our  leader^  what  you  desire ; 
and  what  we  can  do  for  you,"  is  the  proffer  that  comes  to 
me  by  letter  and  word  of  visitors.  All  right,  I'm  going  to 
tell  you:  I  greatly  desire  that,  when  I  go  back  into  the 
world  of  the  free,  I  shall  find  you  a  Church  of  singers. 
I  shall  not  care  a  hill  of  beans  about  the  artistic  quality 
of  it.  But  the  volume  and  heartiness  and  spontaneity  — 
in  a  word,  the  folk-singing  fire  and  sweep  in  it  —  is  what 
I  shall  look  for.  And  I  entreat  you  not  to  disappoint  me. 

Singing  is  our  distinction.  It  redeems  us  from  the 
commonplaceness  of  the  platform  pattern  of  meetings. 
If  the  Revolution  Church  had  been  nothing  but  a  lecture 
center,  how  suddenly  would  it  have  disorganized  when  I 
was  taken  from  you!  I  am  not  sure  but  the  speaking  is 
the  subordinate  side  of  our  movement.  To  be  sure  we 
couldn't  get  along  without  it.  The  intellect  must  be  fed. 
But  neither  could  we  get  along  without  the  singing.  For 
the  emotions  too  have  claims  and  must  be  fed.  Singing 
has  been  lamentably  tossed  into  the  discard  by  Socialism 
of  late.  And  it  is  a  sign  of  her  slump  from  the  inspira- 
tions of  former  times,  down  into  the  glamour  of  materialism 
and  a  politician's  paradise. 

Music  is  wing  power.  Working  with  me  in  the  prison 
yard  is  an  old  German,  who  was  in  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  of  1870.  Telling  me  of  his  experiences,  he  related 
the  other  day  how,  when  they  went  into  the  battle,  "  the 
music,"  as  he  termed  the  military  bands,  kept  in  a  safe 

place.     "  Because,"  he  explained,  "  if  the  music  should  be 

64 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  65 

killed,  what  should  we  do?  On  a  long  day's  march  when 
we  were  ready  to  drop,  the  music  would  start  up ;  and  then 
we  could  step  twice  so  well  as  before." 

Comrades,  unto  a  great  work  have  we  separated  our- 
selves. We  proclaim  a  Socialism  big  and  deep  and  many- 
sided  as  the  soul  of  man.  Economic  theory  is  all  right 
for  the  brain.  But  the  human  animal  is  gifted  also  with 
a  heart.  Music  is  the  language  of  the  heart.  Always, 
when  the  feelings  mightily  are  stirred,  music  is  the  vehicle 
of  expression.  The  dirge  for  sorrow.  The  joy  song,  for 
the  lyric  expansive  hour.  The  trumpet  tones  for  battle. 
The  paean,  to  celebrate  a  victory.  And  marching  music 
in  our  journey  ings. 

I  know,  there  is  in  Socialist  Party  circles  an  assembly 
of  mockers.  They  deride  aught  that  savors  of  sentiment. 
But  we  heed  not  their  scoffing.  We  will  not  permit  them 
to  outface  us.  A  songless  Socialism  is  a  wrangling,  con- 
tentious, dismembered  thing.  A  singing  Socialism  will  be 
a  socialism  triumphant. 

Song  means  that  the  depths  within  have  been  reached. 
It  is  peculiarly  fitting  for  a  world  movement  such  as  ours. 
And  particularly  in  the  day  of  crisis  and  culmination  that 
is  now  upon  us.  Have  you  noticed,  since  the  war  now  at 
blaze,  the  increase  in  the  output  of  poetry  in  the  news- 
papers and  magazines?  And  the  prose  too,  has  taken  on 
a  tone  of  solemnity  and  exaltation  that  is  near  kin  to 
poetry.  It  is  because  mankind  is  so  profoundly  moved. 

What  poetry  is  to  prose,  music  is  to  the  spoken  word. 
Poetry  and  music  are  natural  mates.  They  signify  that 
the  soul  is  functioning  —  that  divine  agitation  from  which 
alone  proceed  all  work  of  genius,  and  all  changes  of  per- 
manency in  human  affairs. 

Of  all  mankind,  we  of  the  Revolution  Church  have  the 
most  right  to  sing.  We  are  the  light  of  the  world.  In 
this  bewildering  day,  we  alone  have  the  clew,  and  the  sure 
authentic  pathway.  Defenders  of  this  present  order  are 
in  dire  perplexities.  Listen  to  these  words  from  Ex- 


66  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

President  Eliot  of  Harvard,  in  this  morning's  New  York 
Times:  "Thinking  people  in  all  the  civilized  countries 
are  asking  themselves  what  the  fundamental  trouble  with 
civilization  is,  and  where  to  look  for  means  of  escape  from 
the  present  intolerable  conditions."  We  of  the  Revolu- 
tion Church  are  the  means  of  escape  for  which  he  and  his 
are  eagerly  looking.  In  a  day  of  spoiling  and  slaughter, 
and  the  tempest  of  death,  we  are  in  possession  of  the 
serene  secret.  It  ought  to  make  us  joyful  with  a  joy 
raised  to  the  singing  point. 

The  Churches  of  the  old  school  are  harassed  by  doubt. 
Their  theologies  don't  square  with  science.  They  are  in 
collision  with  the  universities.  So  that  they  recite  their 
creeds  more  and  more  stutteringly.  And  in  all  their  chant- 
ing there  is  a  suggestion  of  the  minor  key.  We,  on  the 
contrary,  are  delivered  from  doubt.  Those  interior  con- 
flicts ravage  us  not.  We  are  in  unison  with  science.  The 
colleges  and  universities  are  in  partnership  with  us,  pre- 
paring ten  thousand  minds  to  receive  our  gospel.  Isn't 
that  an  occasion  for  song? 

And  then  see  how  wonderfully  our  church  in  its  short 
six  months  of  history  has  flourished.  We  are  known. 
California  has  heard  about  us.  Florida  has  heard  about 
us.  The  city  and  the  countryside  have  heard  about  us. 
Said  Howard  Crosby,  "  Woe  to  the  Cause  that  has  not 
passed  through  a  prison ! "  We  have  met  the  test  of 
prison,  and  have  not  been  found  wanting.  Of  all  the 
protesters  against  the  Ludlow  business,  our  Church  has 
been  in  the  forefront.  For  all  time  henceforth,  our  church 
is  implicated  with  the  sorrows  and  the  strivings  of  the  dis- 
inherited. And  all  of  this  only  in  the  initial  six  months 
of  our  history.  We  have  withstood  antagonism  from 
without,  disruption  from  within.  And  we  are,  in  every 
essential  point,  stronger  to-day  than  we  were  at  any  other 
moment.  The  gate  of  the  prison,  that  seemed  at  the  time 
so  grievous,  is  turning  out  rather  unto  the  progress  of  our 
gospel.  It  has  served  to  concentrate  public  opinion,  and 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  67 

focus  public  interest.  Comrades,  if  we  haven't  the  right 
to  sing,  who  has? 

Then  let  us  lift  up  our  voice,  as  the  noise  of  a  host. 
"Boldness,  and  joy  and  zeal" — that  is  our  trinity  of 
blessedness  and  triumph.  All  things  are  ours.  Our  ap- 
pointed time  is  accomplished.  Unto  us  is  this  world  given 
for  a  possession.  The  old  order  passes.  The  depths  are 
breaking  up.  Unto  our  cause  of  industrial  democracy,  the 
day  of  glory  dawns.  With  such  a  message  sending  its 
fire  into  our  bones,  we  cannot  be  silent.  We  will  shout 
it  from  the  tops  of  the  houses.  Let  scoffers  scoff.  We 
are  stiffhearted.  We  are  as  adamant  harder  than  flint. 
They  that  strive  against  us  shall  perish.  We  go  forth 
into  the  mudgutter.  Our  lips  disperse  knowledge  to  them 
that  are  ignorant.  We  awaken  the  sleeper. 

I  do  not  write  this,  to  persuade  you  to  sing.  Music  is 
of  its  nature  spontaneous.  It  cannot  be  made  to  order. 
But  the  music  is  already  in  your  hearts.  I  am  entreat- 
ing that  you  take  off  the  lid  and  let  the  music  out.  Give 
your  soul  a  chance.  In  this  day  of  decorums  and  stiff 
proprieties,  the  feelings  have  been  too  much  repressed. 
Commercialism  and  middleclassdom  are  stifling  to  the  soul. 
Shake  off  these  weights.  Let  the  stifled  spirit  free.  We 
have  the  greatest,  grandest  message  that  has  come  to  earth 
for  two  thousand  years.  The  Revolution  Church  is  So- 
cialism set  to  music.  Ours  it  is,  to  open  the  blind  eyes 
and  unstop  deaf  ears.  The  days,  one  by  one,  bring  us 
good  tidings.  Our  wagon  is  hitched  to  the  stars  in  their 
courses.  And  upon  truth  our  feet  are  planted,  a  fir- 
mament that  shall  not  be  moved. 

Then  let  our  spirit  rise  up  in  all  its  might.  Lift  up 
your  voice  with  strength.  The  world  will  take  account 
of  us  when  they  perceive  that  our  message  has  kindled 
into  song.  In  this  so  memorable  day,  it  is  fit  that  the 
fountains  of  the  great  deep  inside  of  us  should  break  up. 
Once  let  Socialism  begin  to  sing,  Capitalism  will  tremble. 
Music  is  the  deeps  calling  to  the  deeps.  And  will  do  more 


68  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

to  arouse  a  generation  of  shop-keepers,  than  carloads  of 
logic  and  forensic  oratory.  Comrades,  I  speak  the  truth : 
If,  when  I  come  out,  I  find  you  a  singing  church,  these 
months  of  imprisonment  will  be  accounted  the  most  fruit- 
ful of  my  life ;  and  the  happiest. 

Check  this  week,  and  for  the  next  six  weeks,  will  be 
$3,  or  $30  in  all.  Which  I'll  send  to  treasurer  Wheelock, 
in  order  that  he  may  square  the  office  rent  at  48  Wash- 
ington Square  for  this  month  and  next.  The  faithful 
ones  there  toiling  are  under  a  heavy  load.  If  I  take  the 
rent  anxiety  from  off  them,  it  will  ease  the  pressure  a  little. 

Yours  for  a  Church  bursting  with  music, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  11 
THE  STRONG  CONTAGION 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

From  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey,  letters  reached  me 
last  week,  stating  that  the  writers  are  desirous  of  starting 
a  branch  of  the  Revolution  Church  in  their  town. 

This  is  of  interest.  The  fact  that  already,  whilst  the 
parent  church  in  New  York  is  itself  but  a  babe  in  arms, 
the  contagion  of  the  idea  is  spreading  to  other  places,  tells 
of  hot  high-pressured  vitality  in  the  seed  we  are  ripening. 
The  fact  that  we  are  doing  our  deeds  in  the  metropolis, 
in  part  accounts  for  this.  New  York  is  a  city  set  on  a 
very  high  hill  of  publicity  and  popular  interest.  Small 
goings-on  in  New  York  bulk  bigger  than  a  large  doing  in 
Augusta,  Georgia.  Whether  we  wish  it  or  not,  our  work 
cannot  be  hid.  More  eyes  than  we  believe,  and  across  a 
wider  sweep  of  country,  are  observantly  upon  us. 

But  the  contagiousness  of  our  Church  is  not  explain- 
able purely  on  those  mechanical  grounds.  The  idea 
around  which  our  doings  crystallize,  is  big  and  alive  and 
timely.  For  one  thing,  we  bring  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment of  the  day  to  self-consciousness.  Had  you  ever 
thought  of  it,  we  are  the  only  organization  that  puts  the 
word  revolution  boldly  in  its  title.  There  are  other  bodies 
that  propagate  revolution.  But  they  don't  say  so  —  ap- 
parently they  don't  dare  to  say  so  —  in  the  name  by  which 
they  designate  themselves.  With  us  there  is  no  conceal- 
ment. We  do  our  doings  in  the  daylight.  We  proclaim 
revolution.  And  with  so  forthright  and  open  a  spirit  as 
to  write  it  in  the  very  signboard  that  we  tack  up  over  the 

entrance  to  our  shop,  where  every  passer-by  can  see. 

69 


70  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

I  predict  that  this  fact  of  itself  is  going  to  have  conse- 
quences which  perhaps  may  get  into  history.  It  is  dis- 
tinctly a  point  gained,  when  a  combat  gets  out  from  cover 
and  lines  up  in  the  open.  What  was  until  then  a  guerrilla 
affair,  shifty  and  uncertain,  elevates  itself  now  into  de- 
clared warfare,  with  the  dignity  and  manlier  stouter 
nobler  tone  which  characterizes  war  when  it  is  formally 
announced  and  openly  entered  upon. 

That  is  the  service  our  Church  is  rendering  to  the  social 
war.  For  some  time  now  a  revolution  has  been  in  prog- 
ress. But  it  wasn't  recognized  as  such.  We  come  upon 
the  scene,  and  tag  the  thing  with  its  true  label.  Thereby 
we  lift  it  from  an  affair  of  bushwhackers  into  a  line-up 
of  two  contending  world-philosophies.  So  that  they  that 
take  part,  do  so  now  with  understanding  and  a  heart  of 
bold  demeanor. 

It  is  an  enormous  advantage  gained  when  a  revolution 
reaches  the  point  where  it  calls  itself  by  that  name.  Few 
people  are  able  to  know  their  own  day.  As  when  passing 
judgment  on  a  mountain  or  a  huge  building,  distance  is 
necessary  for  perspective.  Always  an  age  of  revolution 
is  one  of  confused  and  perplexing  tendencies.  It  is  a 
time  of  cross-currents.  In  this  kind  of  a  day,  thousands 
of  people  live  and  die  without  knowing  that  a  revolution 
has  been  taking  place.  In  the  Paris  of  1793,  life  in  the 
main  went  on  in  customary  grooves.  The  bakers  baked, 
and  housewives  washed  each  week  their  basketful  of 
soiled  linen.  Dullards  lived  in  that  mighty  day,  all  blind 
to  the  grandeur  of  it.  They  merely  paused  to  note  that 
politics  were  more  stormy  than  usual,  and  the  guillotine 
was  claiming  a  larger  number  of  victims  than  for  some 
time  past.  Then  they  returned  to  their  humdrum,  and  so 
missed  participation  in  one  of  the  most  momentous  eras 
that  ever  came  to  awaken  the  race. 

Such  another  age  is  ours.  And  many  thousands  in  like 
fashion  are  dull  to  the  majestic  meanings  of  it.  Our 
church  comes  to  such  with  a  lantern  to  light  up  the  dark- 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  71 

ness  of  their  minds.  Picture  what  happens  inside  of  them, 
when  their  eye  lights  on  our  name  in  a  news  column  or  on 
a  throw-around :  "  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution." 
Without  a  word  of  argument,  it  infects  them  with  the 
idea  that  a  revolution  is  either  in  process  already,  or  is 
imminent.  They  may  not  accept  the  idea.  Nevertheless 
they  can't  shake  it  off.  And  a  ferment  is  set  going  in 
their  brain  tracts  that  soon  or  late  will  land  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  them  in  the  revolutionary  camp. 

Yes,  we  are  in  possession,  comrades,  of  a  big  and  thun- 
dering idea.  If  we  did  nothing  more  than  just  keep  going 
and  hold  up  that  name,  "  Church  of  the  Social  Revolu- 
tion," before  the  eyes  of  the  people,  we  would  be  doing  a 
day's  work  fruitful  of  largest  consequences. 

Therefore  it  is  not  to  be  marveled  at  that  people  out- 
side of  New  York  are  catching  the  splendid  contagion,  and 
are  asking,  "  Why  not  a  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution 
here  in  my  town  too?  " 

I'm  going  to  suggest  the  steps  to  take  and  methods  to 
pursue,  in  starting  a  branch  Church  in  one's  own  locality. 
But  that  will  have  to  be  in  a  letter  by  itself. 

Yours  in  the  great  and  holy  work, 

BOIJCK  WHITE. 


NO.  12 
MISSIONARY  MEASURES 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

I  spoke  last  week  of  the  letter  that  had  just  come  from 
a  comrade  in  New  Jersey  who  wishes  to  organize  a  branch 
of  our  church  in  his  town.  In  replying  I  mentioned  to 
him  some  practical  ways  of  going  about  such  an  under- 
taking. It  may  be  of  worth  to  repeat  them  here.  For 
we  have  in  our  New  York  meetings,  to  a  degree,  a  migra- 
tory audience.  The  industrial  break-up  sends  our  people 
hither  and  yon.  They  who,  in  our  New  York  City  center, 
have  caught  fire  with  our  flame,  will  on  moving  elsewhere 
wish  to  carry  the  burning  coals  to  that  new  habitation. 
What  are  the  steps  to  take? 

Well,  in  the  first  place  let  the  missionary  who  thus  starts 
out  to  plant  the  powerful  seed  in  any  city  or  town,  be  as- 
sured that  he  has  hold  of  a  live  wire.  "  Church  of  the 
Social  Revolution  "  is  a  name  that  will  make  a  community 
sit  up  and  take  notice.  Probably  some  reports  of  us  have 
already  reached  their  ears.  For  in  a  short  six  months, 
tidings  of  us  have  traveled  across  many  hundreds  of  miles 
of  the  map.  Therefore,  let  the  name  be  blazoned  across 
every  move  that  is  made.  Print  it  large  on  any  cards  that 
are  issued.  Let  the  letters  stand  out  in  white,  against  a 
field  of  red,  to  be  the  banner  in  all  assemblings. 

In  the  next  place,  don't  try  to  get  the  Socialist  Party 
officially  to  help  you.  The  trend  of  an  institution,  once 
it  attains  to  some  establishment,  to  harden  into  con- 
servatism, is  terribly,  terribly  real.  The  Socialist  Party 
is  not  escaping  that  trend.  From  raising  up  a  generation 
that  shall  be  Socialists  every  day  in  the  year,  they  are 

72 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  73 

more  and  more  content  to  raise  up  a  generation  that  shall 
be  Socialists  only  on  Election  Day  each  year.  It  is  easier 
to  socialize  a  man's  ballot  than  to  socialize  him  in  heart 
and  mind  and  spirit.  Therefore  the  Party  tends  nat- 
urally to  go  off  into  the  easier  and  quicker  job,  and  looks 
with  coolness  on  us ;  lest  our  propaganda  of  a  Socialism  of 
the  heart,  cut  in  on  their  propaganda  of  a  Socialism  only 
of  the  ballot.  It  will  take  time  to  show  them  that  we 
are  the  best  friend  and  coadjutor  that  ever  arose  to  help 
their  cause.  Meanwhile  we  shall  have  to  go  ahead  on  our 
own  initiative.  We  shall  have  to  save  the  Socialist  Party 
in  spite  of  itself.  The  time  will  come  when  they  will  rise 
up  and  call  us  blessed. 

In  starting  the  propaganda,  bear  in  mind  that  our 
church  is  founded  on  a  great  idea,  and  a  new  idea. 
Namely,  that  the  Power  of  the  universe  is  passionately  on 
the  side  of  the  toiler,  against  the  idler.  That  puts  a  dif- 
ference between  us  and  the  churches  of  the  Respectability, 
a  difference  great  as  day  from  darkness,  or  summer's  fruit- 
ful heat  from  winter's  driving  cold.  It  is  a  difference 
furthermore  that  is  structural  and  fundamental.  It  puts 
life  and  the  universe  in  a  wholly  changed  and  fresh  aspect ; 
a  change  so  deep  and  central  that  it  reaches  an  altering 
hand  into  every  department  of  existence,  and  makes  all 
things  new.  We  cannot  compromise,  therefore.  Nor  tin- 
ker up  the  present  establishment.  New  wine  demands  new 
wineskins. 

This  gospel  of  ours,  while  new  to  men  to-day,  is  not 
however  an  innovation  or  an  adventurous  untried  experi- 
ment. It  was  fundamentally  the  viewpoint  of  the  great 
spirits  that  wrought  the  deeds  recorded  in  the  Bible  and 
wrote  its  pages.  The  discovery  of  this  fact  is  known  as 
the  higher  criticism;  the  scientific  mind  and  the  scientific 
spirit,  applied  to  the  study  of  the  Bible.  Therefore  we 
enter  a  town,  not  as  emotional  fanatics,  decrying  the  in- 
tellect and  directing  our  appeal  purely  to  unthinking 
minds.  We  have  a  message  that  is  adapted  to  the  most 


74  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

highly  educated  intellects.  We  demand  a  hearing,  not 
only  from  the  man  in  the  street  but  from  the  college  profes- 
sor as  well.  We  speak  the  word  of  historical  science  and 
sound  scholarship.  They  who  seek  to  refute  us  are  the 
ignoramuses.  For  they  know  not  modern  science.  Their 
viewpoint  is  that  of  a  European  peasant  to-day,  or  of 
people  in  the  dark  ages  ten  full  centuries  ago.  Therefore 
both  dignity  and  invincible  boldness  should  characterize 
our  goings-on. 

As  a  practical  method  of  getting  this  new  and  revolu- 
tionizing message  into  the  hearts  of  the  people,  the  "  Call 
of  the  Carpenter,"  and  its  recent  companion  book,  are  in- 
valuable. Every  copy  of  those  books  let  loose  in  a  neigh- 
borhood, is  a  missionary  active  in  our  behalf.  A  low- 
priced  edition,  practically  at  cost  price,  has  been  issued. 
From  some  particular  street  corner,  on  certain  nights 
every  week,  the  book  should  be  sold.  With  the  banner 
of  the  Church  afloat.  And  with  spoken  words  ex- 
planatory of  the  gospel  we  are  preaching  and  the  world 
movement  we  are  organizing. 

With  that  book  circulating  in  the  community,  it  will 
not  be  long  before  individuals  will  become  interested  in  us. 
The  message  uttered  in  its  pages  has  a  way  of  dyna- 
miting the  mind  and  spirit.  It  starts  a  flood  of  questions. 
Provokes  to  conversings  and  discussions.  And  a  Sunday 
afternoon  conference,  in  some  private  house  at  first,  and 
advertised  in  the  papers  or  by  throw-arounds,  can  easily 
be  made  to  follow. 

From  then  on,  the  way  is  clear.  It  is  only  the  first 
step  that  costs.  After  that,  helpers  volunteer.  And  un- 
suspected avenues  of  opportunity  open  up.  Public  de- 
bates with  ministers  and  Catholic  priests  can  be  arranged. 
Because  we  tap  all  the  sources  of  contemporary  life,  we 
can  use  the  columns  of  the  local  newspapers,  by  means  of 
articles  about  timely  happenings,  and  leading  up  to  the 
message  our  church  is  propagating.  Many  boys  and 
young  men  are  floating  away  from  the  old-time  Sunday 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  75 

Schools  teaching  an  antiquated  creed.  With  us,  however, 
they  will  find  a  tightness  and  soundness  of  intellect,  an 
up-to-the-minute  mind,  and  a  virile  participation  on  life's 
dangerous  firing  line.  Therefore  a  class  of  young  people, 
to  study  these  great  new  truths,  will  be  ofttimes  a  possi- 
bility. Also,  classes  for  children.  Children  make  ardent 
propagandists.  Let  one  true-spirited  boy  or  girl  in  a 
sleepy,  middleclass  home  become  inoculated  with  our  gos- 
pel, he  or  she  will  overset  the  entire  household,  and  be  a 
light  bearer  of  no  mean  capacity.  All  the  time,  song  — 
as  soon  as  an  earliest  group  has  been  gathered,  after  the 
initial  seed-sowing  —  must  be  a  part  in  our  assemblings  to- 
gether. Music  keeps  a  meeting  from  going  off  into  dry 
intellcctualism  or  harsh  and  futile  wranglings.  Music  has 
power  to  sooth  the  savage ;  split  the  heart  of  hardest  rock ; 
melt  heads  that  are  a  very  cabbage.  Yes,  let  us  be  known 
as  a  singing  people.  It  will  give  wings  to  our  propa- 
ganda, to  carry  it  into  places  little  dreamed  of,  and  to 
hearts  that  hitherto  were  inaccessible  to  Socialist  teach- 
ings. 

Is  it  worth  while  to  take  the  pains  thus  to  start  a  branch 
of  the  Revolution  Church  in  a  community?  Well,  each 
heart  must  answer  that  for  itself.  The  person  who  prefers 
to  give  his  off  time  and  strength  to  croquet  or  bridge  or 
checkers,  tango  teas  or  the  baseball  bulletin,  will  be  un- 
magnetized  by  the  offer  of  service  we  hold  out.  Friv- 
olously they  live,  frivolously  they  will  die,  and  frivolously 
be  snuffed  out  hereafter.  To  them  however  that  weigh 
their  lives  earnestly,  work  of  this  kind  offers  a  harvest 
richer  than  any  other  I  know  of  or  can  think  of.  Picture 
the  average  town  and  city  now :  sunk  in  middleclassdom ; 
without  idealisms;  engrossed  in  money-grubbing;  the  old 
religions  ebbing;  life  going  ever  and  ever  more  flat,  more 
meager,  more  unprofitable;  the  workers  declining  into  a 
serfdom  that  deepens  and  darkens  at  every  minute ;  no  out- 
look ahead;  the  universe  shrinking  into  a  cellar  of  muck 
and  spider  webs. 


76  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

With  the  coming  of  the  Revolution  Church,  however, 
notice  the  change  that  takes  place.  We  proclaim  an  over- 
setting of  the  false  philosophies  that  were  holding  the 
people  back.  Boldness  takes  the  place  of  fear.  The 
workers  straighten  up  their  backs.  The  mudgutter,  for- 
merly a  spot  for  senseless  profanity  and  more  senseless 
obscenities,  echoes  with  a  chorus  of  full-hearted,  full- 
throated  singers.  Eyes  once  dull  in  torpor,  become  phos- 
phorescent with  hope.  Interrogation  awakes.  The  intel- 
lect comes  to  birth.  Life  takes  on  significance.  Why? 
Because  from  highest  heaven  a  mighty  Overturn  is  prom- 
ised, that  shall  turn  the  universe  right  side  up  at  last,  and 
permit  the  natural  beauty  and  joy  and  splendor  of  life  to 
become  manifest. 

Yes,  comrades,  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  such  a  work,  is 
worth  while.  Impoverishment  shall  not  stay  us,  nor  shall 
defeat  discourage  us.  Many  ten  thousands  of  hearts  are 
hungering  for  the  gospel  that  has  been  entrusted  unto  us. 
If  we  were  slothful  in  carrying  it  to  them,  how  could  we 
escape  condemnation.  Since  beginning  this,  a  letter  has 
just  come.  Listen  to  it: 

Bouck  White  —  Dear  Comrade  : 

I  have  read  your  books  and  know  of  your  church, 
and  I  am  interested.  I  think  more  such  churches  should 
be  established.  I  am  a  member  of  the  First  Baptist 
here,  but  have  talked  with  the  pastor  about  a  change. 
I  would  like  to  know  more  about  your  church  and  be  a 
member  "  at  large,"  perhaps,  and  turn  in  what  little 
support  I  can  for  the  cause  and  not  against  it. 

Yours  for  the  Social  Revolution, 

GEO.  E.  ALLEN, 
S.  State  St.,  Painesville,  Ohio. 


An  appeal  so  genuine  and  spontaneous  must  not  go  un- 
heeded.    We  and  we  alone  have  the  words  of  eternal  life, 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  77 

unto  this  lost  generation  now  upon  earth.     There  is  cheer 
in  that  thought.     And  also,  what  a  responsibility ! 

Yours  forever, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  IS 
MAN  IS  GOD'S  YOUNGER  BROTHER 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

The  newspapers  announce  bomb  attacks  on  two  New 
York  churches.  And  that,  as  a  consequence,  a  guard  has 
been  placed  over  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  (the  Rocke- 
feller) Church.  Inasmuch  as  I  am  in  prison  for  having, 
as  your  minister,  sought  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
churches  to  their  responsibility  in  the  social  war  whose 
skirmishes  are  so  ominously  setting  in,  I  deem  that  a  state- 
ment from  us  would  be  timely.  Assure  the  Baptist  Church 
in  question  that  they  are  in  no  peril  —  physically  —  from 
us.  We  deplore  recourse  to  dynamite  as  much  as  they. 
Indeed,  to  elevate  the  social  question  out  of  the  realm  of 
violence  into  the  plane  of  reason  and  light,  is  a  chiefest 
objective  for  which  our  church  of  the  proletary  masses 
was  instituted. 

Thus,  though  we  yield  to  no  one  in  condemning  recourse 
to  dynamite,  nonetheless  that  event  in  St.  Patrick's  Ca- 
thedral this  week  is  prodigiously  significant.  It  tells  — 
if  revolutionists  were  the  doers  of  it  —  that  the  people  are 
at  last  awaking  to  the  part  theology  is  playing  in  the 
social  war.  Members  of  the  red  host  international  have 
been  arguing  that  the  churches  are  a  negligible  factor  in 
the  battle  for  freedom  we  are  waging.  Ritual  and  altar 
and  pulpits  they  have  pooh-poohed,  as  a  force  too  remote 
from  every-day  affairs  to  merit  our  notice. 

The  St.  Patrick's  bomb,  on  the  anniversary  of  Ferrer's 
assassination,  is  evidence  that  a  change  of  mind  in  this 
matter  is  taking  place.  The  organized  religion  of  a  peo- 
ple is  the  one  most  potent  factor  in  shaping  that  people. 

78 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  79 

Theology  and  sociology  are  brothers,  and  linked  by  as 
vital  a  ligature  as  were  the  Siamese  twins.  One  affects 
the  other.  The  position  our  church  has  taken  is  invinci- 
ble, namely:  the  religious  life  tells  energetically  on  the 
economic  life.  And  the  latter  cannot  be  altered  until  the 
former  is  altered. 

Herein  stands  the  fundamental  mischief  of  our  time. 
We  have  a  democratic  state  and  a  monarchical  religion. 
And  it  is  a  dislocation  that  is  perverting  and  enflaming 
every  function  of  the  organism.  The  Catholic  Church  is 
not  alone  in  displaying  an  anti-democratic  pattern  of  the- 
ology. The  Protestants  —  to  the  extent  that  they  still 
retain  any  tenacity  and  consistency  of  belief  —  preach 
equally  a  monarchical  potentate  over  the  universe;  and  a 
groveling  posture  by  man  towards  that  potentate. 

The  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  people  were  in  panic  when 
we  suggested  a  conference  with  them  on  this  theme.  These 
six  months  of  felon  stripes  for  me  bespeak  in  them  nought 
else  than  a  delirium  of  terror.  And  with  reason.  They 
knew  they  could  not  meet  the  issue.  More  truly  than  the 
people  know,  the  Ludlow  massacre  in  Colorado  was  ripened 
in  that  church  where  Mr.  Rockefeller  receives  religious 
nurture.  Not  consciously,  of  course,  either  on  his  part, 
or  the  pastor  or  people.  Exactly  in  the  subconscious- 
ness  of  the  process,  resides  the  deadly  efficacy  of  it.  Every 
hymn  and  sermon,  every  prayer  and  chanting  and  recital 
of  the  creed,  was  a  factor  whereby  in  Mr.  Rockefeller  was 
wrought  a  state  of  mind  of  despotism  towards  his  work- 
men in  Colorado.  He  was  desirous,  of  course,  to  make  it 
into  a  benevolent  despotism;  just  as  the  god  that  was  fig- 
ured before  his  vision  was  a  benevolent  despot,  using  his 
absolutism  for  the  good  of  his  subjects.  But  a  despotism 
nevertheless.  And  it  was  against  despotism,  even  of  the 
benevolent  kind,  that  those  Ludlow  miners  revolted.  The 
Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  people  little  realized  it,  but  every 
prayer  from  that  pulpit  was  a  cartridge  in  the  guns  of 
them  that  slew  the  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  working 


80  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

folk  in  Colorado.  We  in  New  York  have  to  aid  that  kind 
of  church  with  our  taxes.  And,  if  we  question,  so  much 
as  by  a  friendliest  word,  we  are  cast  into  jail,  without  trial 
and  without  redress. 

That  bomb  in  St.  Patrick's  cathedral  is  going  to 
reverberate  a  sound  that  may  get  into  history.  The  re- 
ligious realm  is  ever  the  area  where  revolutions  flame  the 
most  vehemently.  And  it  is  going  to  be  so  also  with  the 
revolution  to-day.  The  mission  of  our  church  is  to  carry 
the  issue  over  into  this  religious  field;  and  then,  to  keep 
it  from  going  off  into  violences.  We  have  not  a  moment 
to  lose,  to  speak  the  sobering  word  to  those  now  going 
off  into  these  mad  excesses.  I  thirst  for  my  November  12 
day  of  release,  that  I  may  get  by  your  side  once  again  in 
the  work. 

St.  Patrick's  Cathedral  and  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist 
Church  are  indeed  enemies  to  industrial  freedom.  They 
are  two  armored  strongholds  squarely  blocking  the  path 
that  leads  to  liberty.  And  they  must  be  reduced  before 
the  armies  of  the  light  can  appreciably  advance.  But 
here  the  military  likeness  ceases.  For,  unlikei  a  fortress 
of  steel  and  concrete,  these  spiritual  towers  of  menace  and 
slavery  can  not  be  reduced  by  gunpowder. 

Bombs  explode  in  a  backward  direction;  and  hurt  the 
attacker  more  than  they  hurt  the  attacked.  Ideas  can 
only  be  combated  by  ideas.  Let  us  proclaim  more  loudly 
and  energetically  than  ever  our  gospel  of  a  consecrated  in- 
dustrialism ;  a  religion  of  valor  —  to  supplant  the  exist- 
ing religion  of  toadyism  and  fear.  In  order  that  there 
may  be  engendered  a  liberalism  of  the  spirit  to  companion 
the  liberalism  in  our  forms  of  government.  And  so  the 
present  dislocation  of  a  monarchical  soul  in  a  democratic 
body  may  be  remedied  and  for  all  time  done  away. 

Yours  in  the  Carpenter,  that  strong  red  god  of  Galilee. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  14 
AMERICA'S  BLENDING  OF  THE  RACES 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades: 

I  took  a  census  of  the  nationalities  of  some  of  the  pris- 
oners here,  the  other  day.  Each  tier  has  seven  cells.  Tak- 
ing my  tier,  I  found  that  the  other  six  prisoners  were  as 
follows :  One  Russian  Jew,  one  Greek,  two  Irish,  a  Swede, 
and  an  Italian.  We  were  six  different  nationalities.  Yet 
all  melting  into  one  citizenship  and  speaking  —  or  trying 
to  speak  —  one  language.  Taking  the  entire  prison,  we 
have,  or  have  had  this  summer,  representatives  of  well  nigh 
every  race  and  nation  north  of  the  equator.  Medley  of 
Poles  and  Germans  and  Polacks  and  Negroes,  Scotch  and 
Irish  and  English,  French  and  Italians,  the  Mongolian 
and  the  white  man,  Jews  from  the  Orient  and  Scandinavi- 
ans —  you  never  saw  a  more  miscellaneous  lot. 

They  are  a  cross  section  of  the  American-race-that-is- 
to-be.  No  better  place  than  a  j  ail,  to  visualize  the  migra- 
tion of  mankind  hither  to  these  shores  in  the  West. 
Strangers  in  a  strange  land,  they  are  what  the  French 
call  deracinees.  They  live  all  uprooted  from  the  associa- 
tions that  in  the  old  country  held  them  to  a  moral  life. 
Their  ignorance  of  this  new  country,  also,  is  a  contributing 
factor.  So  that  they  are  enmeshed  in  the  police  court's 
dragnet  to  an  unusual  degree.  Indeed  the  other  day  in 
the  mess  hall  I  got  talking  with  a  poor  devil  of  an  Italian 
from  Southern  Italy  who  got  into  jail  largely  because  his 
English  was  inadequate  to  defend  him. 

I  am  focussing  your  attention  on  this,  because  of  a  very 
practical  bearing  it  has  on  our  work. 

This  transplantation  of  peoples  from  all  the  earth  is  the 

81 


82  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

most  stupendous  movement  of  populations  ever  witnessed, 
and  will  have  consequences  for  a  thousand  years  to  come. 
Historians  trace  the  modern  era  in  Europe  to  the  blending 
of  the  peoples  that  took  place  in  the  Teutonic  invasion  of 
the  ancient  Latin  world.  Italy,  France  and  Spain  were 
the  result,  as  well  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  nations.  In  Amer- 
ica a  new  blending  is  in  progress.  And  as  it  is  on  a  larger 
scale  than  that  earlier  transmigration,  its  effect  promises 
to  be  proportionately  greater. 

Well,  we  as  a  church  are  in  the  midmost  thick  of  this 
business.  New  York  is  the  cosmopolis  of  the  world.  Her 
geography,  at  America's  port  of  entry  for  the  racial  tides 
from  Europe,  makes  of  her  a  gathering  place  for  the  na- 
tions. New  York  is  the  largest  Jewish  city  on  earth. 
And  I  bet  the  figures  would  show  few  Italian  or  Polish  or 
German  or  Irish  cities  in  the  home  countries  that  would 
total  more  than  those  racial  ingredients  within  New  York's 
population. 

To  mingle  these  in  a  new  and  mighty  citizenship  is  a 
commanding  need  of  the  times.  Herein  I  see  where  the 
Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  can  do  a  day's  work  that 
nobody  but  us  can  do,  in  reaching  these  divergent  peoples 
and  blending  them.  For  one  thing,  in  their  transfer  to  a 
new  continent,  the  social  revolution  has  already  taken 
place  with  them.  The  old  has  perished  for  them  irre- 
vocably; mental  furniture  left  behind,  when  they  tore  up 
their  stakes  and  came  to  this  new  world.  Therefore  our 
church  with  its  name  and  covenant  announcing  an  Over- 
turn that  shall  make  all  things  new,  frightens  them  not. 
Their  physical  migration  has  wrought  in  them  readiness 
for  a  mental  migration.  They  are  in  a  condition  of 
spiritual  preparedness.  It  is  a  priceless  moment  for  plant- 
ing in  them  our  seeds  of  a  world-changing  reconstruction. 
We  come  to  clarify  before  their  vision  and  consecrate 
the  revolution  through  which  they,  each  of  them  person- 
ally, have  been  passing. 

I  am  bold  in  pressing  this  upon  your  thought.     Because, 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  83 

so  far  as  I  know,  the  point  has  never  before  been  touched 
upon  by  Socialist  thinkers.  They  dwell  much  —  and  justi- 
fiably —  on  the  change  brought  to  pass  in  the  economic 
world  by  machine  production  supplanting  the  hand  method 
of  old,  necessitating  a  like  revolutionary  change  in  man's 
mental  processes  and  possessions.  The  American  migra- 
tion has  wrought  in  many  millions  of  people  a  physical 
transition  and  upheaval  in  some  respects  more  compre- 
hensive, and  certainly  more  swift  and  dramatic,  than  the 
change  in  the  world  industrial.  An  emotional  stress  of 
this  intensity  heats  the  soul  into  a  molten  state;  man's 
nature  can  then  be  run  into  new  and  wonderful  molds, 
and  so  remodel  human  clay  into  patterns  impossible  in 
the  old  unplastic  state. 

No  other  church  than  ours  is  fitted  for  reaching  this 
incoming  host.  The  Roman  Catholic  is  shut  out  from  Jew 
and  Protestant  and  the  Greek  and  Russian  peoples,  by  the 
animosities  bred  in  their  bone  through  long  centuries  in 
the  old  land.  The  Greek  Catholic  is  limited  in  like  fashion. 
And  the  Protestant  churches  also.  A  new  people,  in  the 
new  land,  and  under  new  industrial  conditions,  have  need 
of  a  new  religion.  To  such  we  come  with  a  new  and  living 
gospel.  Shall  we  not  take  inspiration  from  the  world 
movements  in  the  thick  of  which  we  have  our  being,  and 
propagate  our  message  with  unquenchable  zeal? 
Yours  in  the  holy  task, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


NO.  15 
A  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  IN  BERLIN? 

QUEENS  COUNTY  JAIL. 
My  Comrades : 

At  present  the  doings  of  our  church  are  little  heeded. 
It  is  the  day  of  the  cannon.  The  howitzers'  loud  roar 
swallows  all  other  voices.  Sweet  reason  pines,  when  guns 
begin.  And  we  shall  have  to  abide  in  loneliness  and  neg- 
lect for  a  season.  But  the  drama  that  is  developing  is 
going  to  prosper  our  gospel.  Lest  you  go  bewildered  and 
blinded  by  the  swift  march  of  events  to-day,  I  desire  you 
to  see  with  me  some  of  the  salient  features. 

War  is  pregnant  with  surprises.  And  it  is  within  the 
possibilities  that  Germany  shall  win.  That  outcome  would 
make  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  a  prime  neces- 
sity. True,  it  would  then  be  a  most  dangerous  cult  to 
avow.  For  Deutschland,  flushed  with  victory,  would  be 
a  military  power  in  the  world,  and  would  repress  mightily. 
But  ofttimes  an  open  foe  is  for  democracy  an  asset.  Not 
tyranny's  overt  enmity,  but  mercantilism's  polite  chloro- 
form, is  freedom's  fatalest  danger.  And  the  call  to  make 
stand  against  Prussian  militarism  would  kindle  the  fires  of 
the  spirit  in  many  breasts,  and  prepare  them  for  the  com- 
ing of  our  church. 

But  I  predict  that  Germany  is  not  going  to  win.  At 
present  writing,  many  of  the  facts  are  against  me.  But 
I  offer  the  statement :  The  war  will  terminate  either  in  a 
draw,  or  in  Germany's  downfall.  In  either  case,  I  look  to 
see  a  second  French  Revolution,  but  in  Berlin  this  time. 
The  outraged  German  people,  after  burying  three  million 
of  her  sons,  and  after  the  bankruptcy  of  her  once  proud 

commercialism,  and  the  loss  of  colonies  which  were  begin- 

84 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  85 

ning  to  belt  the  globe,  will  awake  with  indignation  in  their 
marrow.  And  they  will  make  Wilhelmstrasse  and  Unter 
den  Linden  scarlet  with  the  blood  of  their  autocratic  blun- 
dering caste. 

That  revolution  will  spread  its  fires  to  every  horizon. 
A  hundred  years  ago  the  nations  were  but  slenderly  teth- 
ered one  to  the  other.  Yet  the  doings  in  Paris  reverber- 
ated to  all  corners  of  the  globe,  and  shook  monarchy 
everywhere  on  its  base.  To-day  the  nations  are  well  nigh 
as  one.  Communication  is  swift  and  manifold.  With  the 
lighting  of  the  flame  in  Germany,  instantaneous  will  be  the 
report  in  all  parts  of  the  earth.  A  popular  awakenment 
will  billow  like  a  tide  coming  in  from  the  sea,  and  will  fill 
many  an  inlet  in  the  recesses  of  human  minds  now  closed 
against  us. 

The  tidal  wave  thrown  up  by  that  eruption  will  prove 
an  irrigation  for  the  seed  our  church  is  sowing.  "  Church 
of  the  Social  Revolution  "  sounds  terrifying  to  many.  But 
in  that  awakenment  we  will  appear  what  we  really  are,  the 
savior  of  a  world  in  dissolution,  the  healer  of  a  civiliza- 
tion sick  unto  death. 

I  send  a  cheer  to  you,  O  comrades.  In  an  opportune 
moment  we  are  come  up.  Big  is  the  outlook,  and  cries  for 
bigness  in  us,  who  are  to  meet  it. 

Yours  in  the  sacred  task, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 

(And  let  me  send  also,  as  to  Germany's  part  in  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  us,  some  verses  that  have  come  to  me  in 
the  silent  hours  of  the  night,  with,  I'll  bet,  something  of 
truth  in  their  foreshadowings.) 

DEUTSCHL.AND    USER    AI/LES 

Launch  now  our  thund'ring  host. 
In  men  of  iron  we  boast. 
Up,  helmets  !     Shout  the  toast  — 
Deutschland  uber  Alles. 


86  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

We  can  no  longer  rest. 
Our  Destiny,  supprest, 
At  length  is  manifest  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

Our  poor,  brought  to  a  crust, 
Share  not  the  battle  lust, 
Drive  them  with  saber  thrust  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

Brass  buttons  here  bear  rule. 
Civilian !     He's  a  fool ; 
We'll  use  him  for  our  tool  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

Our  culture  must  prevail. 
Spread  it  with  fire  and  flail. 
We  virile  are,  and  male  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

Sheer  force  alone  is  law. 
Weaklings  we  overawe, 
Full  sharp  th£  Eagle's  claw  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

For  treaties  give  no  thought. 
Moralities  are  naught. 
A  higher  code  we're  taught  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

Victoriously  we  go. 
We'll  push  a  fleeing  foe. 
Old  Sky-King  wills  it  so  — 
Deutschland  iiber  Alles. 

Base  unbelievers  laugh ; 
God  and  the  General  Staff 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  87 

Shall  scatter  them  like  chaff  — 
Deutschland  uber  Alles. 

The  cannon  shall  be  king ; 
Fodder  for  it  we'll  bring. 
Empire !  Empire !  we  sing  — 
Deutschland  uber  Alles. 

What!     'Gainst  us  an  earth  arrayed! 
Our  ranks  give  ground,  dismayed. 
War's  bitter  price  is  paid  — 
Deutschland  nieder  Alles. 

Now  kings  and  kaisers  pine. 
Democracy  divine 
Is  the  chorus  on  the  Rhine  — 
Deutschland  lebt  fur  Alles. 

The  people  take  control ; 
Seek  empiry  of  the  soul ; 
Veto  the  warrior  role  — 

Deutschland  beliebt  bei  Alles. 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


LETTER  TO  THE  NEW  YORK  INDEPENDENT 

QUEENS  COUNTY  PRISON, 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 

SIR:  The  elevated  tone  for  which  the  Independent  has 
become  renowned,  ill  prepared  me  for  the  low  editorial 
level  you  were  content  to  occupy  in  discussing  our  Colo- 
rado protest  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  Church.  You 
condemn  my  deed  as  a  violation  of  "  law  and  order."  I 
am  prepared  to  waive  all  defense  on  that  point.  The  case 
is  new  in  jurisprudence.  We  have  no  precedents.  While 
there  concededly  was  legal  color  for  my  arrest  and  im- 
prisonment, there  are  so  many  and  so  weighty  considera- 
tions on  the  other  side,  that  the  courts,  had  they  been  so 
minded,  could  have  found  ample  grounds  for  an  acquittal. 

But  neither  my  article  in  your  magazine  stressed  the 
legal  side,  nor  does  our  case  rest  upon  it.  Legality  ?  All 
the  loftier  deeds  produced  by  history  have  been  illegal. 
The  doings  of  Garrison  and  Lovejoy  and  Phillips  were 
supralegal  and  ofttimes  contralegal.  "  The  higher  law," 
said  Seward,  defending  these  lawless  agitators.  And  the 
New  York  Independent  in  that  day  echoed  his  fine  defiance 
of  the  sordid  prudences  of  mercantilism,  so  that  your 
journal  became  well  nigh  a  folklore  throughout  the 
country. 

Law  is  always  a  standpatter.  It  consecrates  the  status 
quo.  It  is  the  clearing  in  the  forest,  the  outpost  to  which 
civilization  thus  far  has  reached.  Every  advance  of  the 
moral  frontier  has  been  extralegal;  a  journey  forward  into 
the  unmapped ;  and  with  the  law-abiders  sputtering  them- 
selves red  in  the  face.  Show  me  a  land  where  everybody  is 
legal,  and  I  will  show  you  a  land  sunk  in  stagnancy  and 
slothful  satisfaction.  There  are  times  when  to  be  illegal 
is  the  ethical  categorical  imperative.  And  this  fat  and 

88 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  89 

coward  day  is  such  a  time.  Not  that  this  is  to  be  cheap- 
ened into  mankind's  customary  and  common  code.  I  ex- 
pressly wrote  to  Dr.  Woelfkin  beforehand,  explaining  that 
the  times,  being  extraordinary,  demanded  extraordinary 
measures. 

Amos  Pinchot,  defending  our  deed  in  the  public  press, 
drew  the  parallel  of  the  temple-cleansing  in  the  gospel  nar- 
rative. Was  that  purging  of  the  money-changers  accord- 
ing to  "law  and  order"?  "John  Brown's  body  lies 
a-mouldering  in  the  ground ;  but  his  soul  goes  marching 
on  " —  so  we  sing,  and  so  sang  and  exulted  the  New  York 
Independent  in  that  heroic  day.  Was  John  Brown's  pro- 
test at  Harper's  Ferry  a  notable  addition  to  the  chronicles 
of  "  law  and  order  "? 

Jesus,  when  uttering  the  Parable  of  the  Illegal  Steward 
who  confiscated  the  property  of  a  rich  man  and  divided 
it  up  with  the  poor  —  was  he  therein  a  tower  of  strength 
for  "  law  and  order  "  ?  And  how  about  that  Parable  of 
the  Agricultural  Magnate  who  tore  down  his  barns  to  build 
bigger?  Revolution  thunders  along  in  it  so  ominously, 
that  even  the  Revised  Version  dares  not  print  the  Car- 
penter's language  nakedly,  but  falsifies  the  translation. 
The  magnate  in  that  parable  was  handed  over  to  be  dealt 
with  by  the  populace,  and  met  his  death  by  an  armed  up- 
rising in  the  night.  "  Law  and  order?  " 

As  to  Dr.  Woelfkin's  apologetic  that  he  received  not  my 
letter  announcing  our  visit  until  a  few  minutes  before  the 
service,  the  plea  was  accounted  by  me  unworthy  of  serious 
rebuttal.  During  half  a  week  preceding,  the  New  York 
dailies  teemed  with  the  announcement  of  our  proposed  visit 
and  of  the  letter  I  was  sending.  That  Sunday  morning 
accordingly  saw  an  expectant  throng  around  the  church. 
Reporters  had  cameras  ready  focussed  on  tripods.  Plain 
clothes  men  sentinelled  the  doorway.  Inside  the  church 
were  thirty  or  forty  policemen  in  uniform.  The  congre- 
gation was  electric  with  expectation.  That  the  receipt 
in  these  circumstances  of  a  special  delivery  letter  from  me 


90  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

was  sincerely  deemed  by  him  a  thing  whose  perusal  could 
fitly  be  deferred  till  after  the  morning  was  over,  is  beyond 
credence.  The  mystery  of  the  letter's  delay  in  reaching 
him  has  not  been  cleared  up.  We  have  been  denied  a  trial. 
I  have  been  sloughed  in  prison  after  only  a  "  hearing  "  in 
a  police  court,  and  without  any  privilege  of  appeal.  Tak- 
ing Dr.  Woelfkin's  plea  at  its  face  value,  does  it  seem  in 
accord  with  America's  spirit  of  fair  play,  that  I  should  be 
sloughed  in  jail  for  six  months  because  of  a  mistake  by 
the  New  York  postoffice  in  delaying  a  special  delivery  let- 
ter nearly  forty -eight  hours? 

"  We  Preach  Christ  Crucified,"  stands  carven  in  bold 
letters  on  the  facade  of  the  church  in  question.  They  stop 
not  at  prison  fetters  and  the  heaping  of  infamy,  to  defend 
the  master  class  in  our  day,  which  did  the  Golgotha  busi- 
ness in  that  day.  Their  fellow  Protestant  Christians  of 
all  denominations  approve  their  deed  by  tacit  consent  or 
open  plaudit,  and  organize  conferences  meanwhile  to  dis- 
cover why  spirituality  is  so  alarmingly  at  ebb  in  the  mod- 
ern world. 

Yours,  etc.,  BOUCK  WHITE. 


AN  OPEN  LETTER 

To  the  Pastor  and  Members  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist 

Church,  New  York  City. 
Greeting: 

The  imprisonment  of  our  pastor,  Bouck  White,  will  end 
November  the  twelfth.  The  Church  of  the  Social  Revolu- 
tion will  publicly  celebrate  his  homecoming  at  Carnegie 
Hall  on  Friday  evening,  November  the  thirteenth,  at  eight 
o'clock.  Naturally  on  that  occasion  your  church  will  be 
in  the  minds  of  many.  Lest  you  should  fear  some  mood 
of  bitterness  on  our  part,  we  write  this  to  assure  you. 
And  if  you  care  to  be  represented  at  that  service,  we  will 
accord  to  such  a  person  a  place  in  the  evening's  pro- 
gram. Your  personal  card  will  admit  you  and  your 
friends  to  our  platform. 

In  the  letter  sent  you  last  May  after  the  Ludlow  mas- 
sacre in  Colorado,  we  stated :  "  We  are  very  near  neigh- 
bors, our  church  and  yours.  Furthermore,  we  represent 
the  downmost  man,  whereas  your  church  represents  the 
wealthiest  of  the  world.  Therefore  in  this  social  crisis 
which  is  gathering  its  thunder  so  menacingly,  it  is  entirely 
thinkable  that  by  some  relationship  that  will  permit  an 
interchange  of  views,  a  friendliness  of  feeling  could  be 
brought  about  that  might  be  the  means  of  a  happy  issue 
out  of  all  our  social  afflictions." 

Your  answer  to  that  was  to  clap  our  minister  in  prison. 
We  refuse  to  believe  that  such  a  reply  represents  your 
loftiest  and  ripest  judgment  in  the  matter.  Since  then 
nearly  six  months  have  elapsed  —  months  of  felon  pun- 
ishment for  our  pastor,  months  of  mellower  rumination 
by  you.  It  cannot  be  that  you  will  reject  forever  the 
hand  we  hold  out. 

There  is  an  added  reason  why  we  extend  this  invitation. 

91 


92  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

The  Colorado  insurrection  is  yet  far  from  settled.  The 
news  columns  report  a  degree  of  heat  on  both  sides  that 
may  blaze  into  a  flame  angrier  than  the  first.  The  atten- 
tion of  the  people  is  at  present  drawn  to  another  part  of 
the  world.  But  the  Colorado  fires  have  lost  none  of  their 
potentiality  for  mischief;  and  whose  spread  might  make 
even  the  war  in  Europe  of  the  lesser  importance. 

Our  minister  is  now  in  prison  garb  because  he  cried 
aloud  that  the  social  war  is  a  religious  question  and  must 
religiously  be  settled.  When  he  rejoins  us  on  November 
the  twelfth  the  issue  will  have  to  be  reopened.  (As  you 
must  certainly  know  by  now,  prison  bars  never  solve  an 
issue ;  they  but  postpone  its  solution  —  with  interest.) 
We  deem  it  seemly  and  just  that  you  be  represented  at  a 
meeting  where  in  all  likelihood  reference  to  you  will  have 
to  be  made. 

Fraternally  yours  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Carpenter, 
Committee,  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution. 


THE  COMRADES  SEND  GREETING 

My  Dear  Comrade  White : 

Greetings  to  you  on  your  release !  My  hand  is  in  yours 
and  I  hold  you  in  comradely  embrace.  You  have  borne 
yourself  with  supreme  credit  to  yourself  and  to  us  all  and 
every  true  comrade  in  the  land  joins  in  the  celebration  of 
your  splendid  victory.  Truly,  you  have  conquered,  for 
you  have  upheld  the  cause  in  a  trying  hour  and  borne  the 
brutal  persecution  to  which  you  have  been  subjected  in  the 
serene  spirit  of  the  Nazarene  comrade,  which  can  never 
know  defeat. 

I  am  extremely  sorry  not  to  have  been  able  to  be  in  New 
York  to  greet  you  at  the  prison  door.  It  would  have  been 
a  joy  to  me  indeed.  Comrade  Fieldman  did  all  he  could 
to  arrange  a  date  that  would  enable  me  to  be  there,  but  the 
fates  willed  otherwise.  Yet  my  heart,  you  may  be  sure, 
was  there  as  you  walked  into  the  outstretched  arms  of  your 
comrades.  Henceforth  the  prison  house  wherein  you 
served  is  a  holy  shrine. 

I  am  just  leaving  for  the  West.  This  note  is  hurried, 
but  I  am  always  with  you,  as  I  know  you  are  with  me. 
Dearer  than  ever  are  you  to  us  now  for  the  price  you  have 
paid  and  the  fitness  you  have  shown  in  an  hour  of  real 
trial,  to  worthily  serve  the  great  cause. 

With  increasing  regard  and  attachment  I  am, 

Yours  always,  EUGENE  V.  DEBS. 

TERRE  HAUTE,  Ind. 
My  dear  Comrade  Bouck  White: 

I  am  unknown  to  you  personally,  that  is  a  detail,  but 
I  want  to  be  one  of  the  great  host  who  will  greet  you  with 

words  of  welcome  as  you  return  to  the  fighting  line,  where 

03 


94.  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

foundations  of  a  new  heaven  and  earth  are  to  be  estab- 
lished, nay,  are  being  established. 

I  have  read  and  re-read  your  clarion  "  Call,"  and  other 
books,  I  am  one  with  you  through  and  through,  I  admire 
your  invincible  courage,  your  uncompromising,  irrecon- 
cilable spirit,  and,  above  all,  the  really,  vitally,  religious 
element  which  permeates  your  social  revolt. 

This  seems  to  me  the  only  Gospel  which  meets  the  mod- 
ern situation,  philosophically,  socially,  and  economically, 
the  great  mystic  Humanism  focussed  in  the  Galilean  Car- 
penter. Thanks,  a  thousand  times;  it  has  been  a  mighty 
stimulating  vision  to  many  of  us ;  Godspeed  to  you  all 
around. 

With  all  good  wishes, 

Yours  in  the  Social  Upheaval, 

H.  J.  ADLAND. 
Adams  Memorial  Church,  Dunkirk,  N.  Y. 

PS.  I  spoke  for  one  hour  and  forty  minutes  last  night 
on  "  The  Call  of  the  Carpenter  "  in  a  small  town  near 
here  —  your  work  goes  on. 

HORACE,  Kansas. 
Mr.  Bouck  White, 

New  York  City. 
Dear  Comrade : 

I  wonder  if  you  know  that  out  here  on  this  wind-swept 
prairie,  in  this  little  unattractive  town,  many  hearts  looked 
forward  eagerly  to  the  morning  of  the  twelfth,  when  Com- 
rade White  would  be  liberated  from  his  prison  cell,  and  I 
write  in  behalf  of  our  local  to  tell  you  how  through  the 
long  days  of  waiting  our  hearts  were  with  you  in  your 
prison,  and  were  proud  to  know  that  for  the  truth's  sake 
you  had  not  only  obeyed  Christ's  injunction  to  visit  him 
in  prison,  but  had  gone  in  and  stayed  with  him,  and  shared 
with  him,  and  fared  with  him  his  lonely  prison  life.  We 
wrote  the  Governor,  and  have  bought  your  books,  and 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  95 

helped  spread  the  message  you  have  given,  but  it  seems  that 
was  all  we  were  allowed  to  do.  It  would  do  your  heart 
good,  though,  to  know  how  many  people  accept  your  mes- 
sage so  readily  and  gladly,  and  are  finding  in  your  re- 
discovered Carpenter  a  new  meaning  in  his  life  and  mes- 
sage which  will  fill  their  lives  forevermore. 

In  the  article  which  you  wrote  in  the  Independent,  in 
giving  the  vow  taken  by  members  of  your  church,  you 
say  it  is  the  duty  of  each  member  to  bring  others  to  the 
Church  (I  am  quoting  from  memory  and  may  not  have  it 
exact).  That  is  what  I  am  writing  you  for  information 
about.  Will  you  tell  us  what  we  may  do  in  the  thousand 
little  towns  and  villages  which  are  longing  to  have  such 
a  church,  and  yet  are  so  far  away  from  our  magnetic 
gifted  leader.  I  left  the  church  I  was  raised  in  because 
of  its  narrow  sectarianism.  I  cannot  endure  the  Sunday 
Schools,  because  if  you  take  any  modern  scientific  view- 
point of  the  bible  in  their  so  called  bible  study  lesson  you 
are  branded  as  a  heretic  and  unbeliever  and  are  plainly 
informed  that  if  you  want  to  worship  in  their  church  you 
must  keep  your  views  to  yourself.  I  have  a  little  four- 
year  old  boy  who  should  have  some  spiritual  instruction, 
but  I  will  not  send  him  to  the  church  at  hand.  I  have 
been  told  that  somewhere  in  Chicago  is  a  Christian  So- 
cialist paper  which  interprets  the  Sunday-school  lesson 
from  a  modern  scientific  standpoint  —  am  trying  to  lo- 
cate it  to-day  by  mail  —  and  I  am  wondering  why  Com- 
rade Bouck  White  could  not  write  a  service  every  week  to 
be  used  in  the  churches  of  the  Revolution  which  would 
spring  up  all  over  the  land  at  his  call.  The  message  might 
be  written  a  month  ahead,  one  for  each  service  weekly  — 
or  whatever  would  seem  best  to  the  wisdom  of  our  leader; 
this  in  connection  with  a  bible  study  —  not  always  neces- 
sarily from  the  bible,  but  a  story  from  any  great  or  lowly 
life,  nation  or  civilization  —  would  make  a  service  that 
with  local  talent  in  music  could  be  inspiring  and  helpful, 
not  only  to  ourselves  but  the  children  —  for  after  all  that 


96  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

is  the  bitter  part.  Many  comrades  have  severed!  all  rela- 
tions with  the  old  churches  and  are  bringing  up  their  chil- 
dren without  any  spiritual  or  moral  guidance,  and  it  surely 
can  not  be  good  in  the  long  run.  Of  course  we  would 
want  it  to  be  thoroughly  remunerative  to  you,  to  com- 
pensate you  for  your  time  and  effort  —  but  think,  Com- 
rade White  —  what  a  field  for  labor!  The  harvest  is 
surely  white. 

I  trust  my  suggestions  may  not  seem  ill-timed  to  you. 

Yours  for  the  Revolution,  with  greetings  from  all  the 
Comrades. 

MRS.  LlLIIAN  K.  Bui/LARD. 


THE     RELIGION  OF  REVOLUTION  * 

The  editor  asks  me  for  an  account  of  the  Church  of  the 
Social  Revolution,  and  of  my  imprisonment  on  Black- 
well's  Island,  which  followed  so  promptly  the  founding  of 
that  church. 

The  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  announces  a  pur- 
pose audacious  in  the  highest  degree;  namely,  to  revolu- 
tionize the  world's  idea  of  religion.  The  accepted  notion 
is  that  religion  has  to  do  with  the  weakness  that  is  in  the 
world.  We  propose  a  religion  that  shall  have  to  do  with 
the  strength  that  is  in  the  world.  The  two  ideas  are  in 
flat  opposition.  They  cultivate  opposite  traits  of  char- 
acter, and  with  widely  different  methods.  Between  the 
religion  of  weakness  and  the  religion  of  strength  stands  no 
reconciliation.  They  travel  in  opposite  directions,  seeking 
opposite  goals  —  two  trains  on  the  same  track  and  speed- 
ing to  fateful  world-transforming  collision. 

The  religion  of  weakness  is  established  in  the  churches 
of  the  traditional  type.  It  sings  in  their  hymns,  speaks 
through  their  sermons,  dictates  their  prayers,  and  breathes 
its  breath  into  every  chant  and  collect  and  liturgy.  It  is 
a  whining,  suppliant,  belly-crawling  spirit.  It  stands  not 
with  straight  back,  on  two  feet,  upright;  it  grovels,  wor- 
ships a  god  that  can  be  coaxed.  It  imagines  it  will  be 
heard  for  its  much  begging. 

As  I  write  this  in  my  cell,  the  Sunday  morning  church 
service  is  being  held  in  the  corridor  outside.  The  preacher 
is  sincere  —  according  to  the  lights  that  are  in  him.  But 
there  is  scripture  for  it  that  sometimes  the  light  that  is 
in  a  man  is  darkness;  which  is  to  say,  the  steam  in  the 
engine  is  of  excellent  power,  but  is  being  used  to  draw  the 

*  Reprinted  from  the  Christian  Socialist. 

97 


98  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

train  in  the  wrong  direction.  What  wretches  in  prison 
stripes  need,  is  not  weakness,  but  strength.  Weakness  has 
been  their  undoing.  The  more  I  rub  up  against  them  the 
more  I  am  persuaded  that  the  criminal  is  essentially  a 
weakling  —  weak  in  mind,  weak  in  imagination,  weak  in 
will.  Above  all  things  else,  he  needs  vigor,  snap,  grit,  in- 
tensity, self-respect.  But  the  religion  being  handed  out 
to  him  at  this  moment  —  the  songs  and  prayer  and  sermon- 
izing —  seeks  still  further  to  soften  him :  and  if  it  should 
gain  any  proselytes  this  morning,  would  make  them  tenfold 
more  children  of  the  devil  of  flabbiness  than  they  now  are. 

This  glorification  of  weakness  has  brought  it  to  pass 
that  religion  is  thought  of  by  the  world  generally  as  some- 
thing softish,  a  mendicant  mood  of  soul  and  an  unbraced 
attitude  of  the  intellect.  It  is  presented  as  a  resting  place 
for  the  tired,  an  asylum  for  the  broken,  an  opiate  for  the 
oppressed,  a  lifeboat  of  escape  from  a  shipwrecked  world. 
So  that  the  religious  area  of  the  population  is  reduced  to 
those  of  slender  understanding;  or,  when  a  religious  man 
of  intellect  is  found,  he  defends  religion  half  cynically  as 
an  engine  of  social  control  to  keep  the  masses  quiet. 

Now  it  is  an  axiom  that  when  religion  becomes  shame- 
faced, it  is  in  process  of  extinction.  Boldness  is  its  vital 
breath.  Let  it  cease  to  be  bold,  it  ceases  to  be  vital. 
When  men  of  mind  can  no  longer  be  devout,  except  in  slink- 
ing and  furtive  fashion,  religion  is  on  its  deathbed ;  though 
its  dying  agonies  may  be  prolonged,  its  demise  with  certi- 
tude is  decreed. 

FOUNDED  ON  STRENGTH,  NOT  WEAKNESS 

To  do  away  this  apologetic  brand  of  devotion,  and 
breed'  a  race  that  shall  combine  spiritual-mindedness  with 
force,  is  the  purpose  of  the  Revolution  Church.  We  seek 
the  revolution  of  religion,  in  order  to  a  religion  that  shall 
breed  revolution.  Strength,  not  weakness,  is  the  founda- 
tion on  which  it  builds.  And  this  determines  every  part 
of  the  structure.  We  intend  to  change  the  world's  idea 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  99 

of  God.  The  one  whom  we  worship  is  not  a  fatherly  po- 
tentate dispensing  titbits  to  those  who  beg  the  loudest. 
Our  God  is  a  Man  of  War !  He  has  a  fight  on  his  hands. 
Things  as  at  present  constituted  are  not  at  all  to  his 
liking. 

"The  world  is  very  evil; 
The  time  is   waxing  late; 

Be  diligent,  keep  vigil, 
The  Judge  is  at  the  gate," 

sang  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  as  the  middle  ages  were  draw- 
ing to  an  end  and  the  new  era  was  making  its  first  feeble 
birth  movements  felt  in  the  womb  of  time.  Once  again 
we  are  in  one  of  the  world's  transition  moments.  And  the 
manifest  token  that  the  old  era  is  playing  out  is  the  moral 
slump  so  visible  to-day.  Not  that  it  shows  itself  mainly 
in  a  tidal  wave  of  crime  and  open  sinning,  though  some 
appalling  statistics  could  here  be  marshaled.  The  dark- 
ness rather  is  taking  the  form  of  a  let-down  in  moral  hero- 
isms. Men  no  longer  stand  and  fight  and  die  for  principle, 
as  they  did  in  the  heroic  time.  A  day  of  Philistinism  is 
upon  us,  a  lowering  of  standards,  a  debasement  of  tone,  a 
letting-down  of  the  spiritual  level.  "  In  Gold  we  trust," 
is  the  new  rendering.  There  is  a  weakening  of  confidence 
in  the  Unseen;  and  a  terrible  turning  of  the  population 
towards  the  kind  of  salvation  promised  by  Mammon  —  a 
salvation  in  terms  of  pleasure  and  comfort  and  animal  se- 
curity —  purchased  at  any  price ;  for  to-morrow  we  die. 

Thus  the  Unseen  Leader  we  follow  is  a  warrior.  He  is 
opposed  by  a  doughty  foe  and  is  in  the  midmost  of  a 
crucial  and  hard-fought  conflict.  Therefore  his  call  for 
volunteers  is  couched  in  terms  of  hazard  and  trial  and 
hardship.  No  longer  that  old  invitation : 

"  Art  thou  weary,  art  thou  languid, 

Art  thou  sore  distressed? 
Come  to  me,"  saith  One, 

"  And  coming,  be  at  rest."  , 


100  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

The  call  of  our  Lord  God  to  those  who  would  follow  him, 
is  in  a  different  key: 

"  Art  thou  valorous,  art  thou  willing, 

Art  thou  leal  and  true? 
Come  to  me,"  saith  One, 

"  I'm  fighting,  and  need  you." 

"  But  how  can  we  be  sure  that  this  God  will  win  the 
victory  ?  "  inquires  some  one.  "  If  we  enlist  under  Him 
we  may  be  enlisting  under  a  losing  leader  and  will  have 
given  our  lives  to  a  lost  cause."  Precisely,  and  it  is  ex- 
actly that  element  of  risk  which  constitutes  for  us  the  at- 
tractiveness of  the  service.  If  the  battle  were  predestined 
to  victory  it  would  be  no  battle,  but  a  mere  sham  affair,  a 
stage  performance.  In  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  outcome 
lies  the  zest  of  the  conflict,  its  piquancy  and  pungent  joy. 
This  universe  does  not  as  yet  belong  to  God.  But  we  are 
determined  that  it  shall.  We  are  capturing  it  for  him, 
with  him  personally  in  the  field  as  our  Commander.  All 
the  discoveries  of  science,  all  contributions  of  knowledge, 
the  splendor  and  majesty  of  the  intellect's  advance,  every 
triumph  in  the  realm  of  morals,  all  achievements  of  eco- 
nomic and  political  betterment,  progress  in  the  industrial 
arts,  the  beautifying  of  the  world,  growth  in  the  graces 
that  polish  and  adorn  life  —  these  are  all  parts  of  the 
campaign  of  conquest  whereby  our  God  is  wresting  the 
universe  out  of  the  control  of  chaos  and  making  it  his  own 
possession.  To  have  a  conscious  part  in  that  campaign 
is  deemed  by  us  the  glory  of  life,  its  excellency  and  coro- 
nation. 

Manifestly,  thus  to  couch  God's  invitation  to  man  in 
the  language  of  strength  and  service,  rather  than  of  weak- 
ness and  safety,  is  a  revolution  in  the  idea  of  religion. 
Therefore  we  call  our  church  The  Revolution  Church. 
We  spread  the  name  on  our  signboard,  blazon  it  on  our 
banners,  publish  it  widely  as  the  name  by  which  we  delight 
to  be  known.  It  is  not  a  mere  revamping  of  the  religion 
handed  down.  Rather,  it  is  a  religion  new-modeled  in 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  101 

every  part  and  feature,  and  demands  for  its  expression  a 
new  type  of  song  and  sermon  and  ritual,  a  new  kind  of 
devotion,  a  new  conception  of  prayer.  The  change  is  so 
fundamentally  altering,  with  such  implications  wrapped 
up  in  it,  that  no  other  word  than  revolution  can  ade- 
quately phrase  it. 

MUST    CHANGE    IDEA    OF    MAN 

But  for  another  reason  also  are  we  a  Revolution 
Church.  This  change  in  the  idea  of  God  carries  over  im- 
mediately into  the  human  area  and  involves  a  change  in 
the  idea  of  man.  The  old-type  religion  let  human  society 
pretty  much  alone.  The  salvation  offered  by  it  was  in 
terms  of  escape  from  a  wicked  world :  "  Come  ye  apart 
and  be  ye  separate.  O,  think  of  the  home  over  there." 
Their  Father  in  heaven  paternally  stretched  out  arms  of 
refuge  to  shelter  them  snugly  from  the  wickedness  and  the 
sorrow  and  the  casualties. 

But  when  God  is  seen  as  a  Man  of  War  who  sallies  forth 
and  offers  battle  to  the  evils  that  are  in  the  world,  straight- 
way a  new  type  of  the  religious  life  results.  It  translates 
devotion  no  longer  in  terms  of  the  passive,  but  of  an  ac- 
tive, energetic  career.  Now  the  man  of  God,  instead  of 
enduring  the  ills  of  life  with  patience,  goes  out  against 
those  ills  with  militant  zeal ;  for  this  type  does  not  under- 
stand religion  as  merely  a  contemplative  life,  but  a  career 
of  action. 

When  this  religion  of  strength  turns  its  attention  to 
human  society  what  does  it  discern?  A  society  whereof 
Mammon  is  in  control.  It  needs  no  unusual  gift  to  per- 
ceive that  money  is  the  master  of  the  world.  Food  and 
raiment,  houses  and  lands  and  good  books  and  schools,  all 
products  of  science  and  the  beautiful  arts ;  marriage  and 
children  and  the  joy  of  a  home;  doctors  for  health,  recrea- 
tion for  the  mind,  amusement  and  travel,  friends  and  in- 
fluence ;  these  are  in  Mammon's  right  hand  for  him  to  dole 
out  to  those  who  serve  him  best. 


102  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Gold,  Gold,  tyrannous  Gold! 
A  god  that  is  growing  ever  more  bold. 
Foe  of  virtue  from  days  of  old; 
For  it  our  souls  in  the  gutter  are  rolled. 
On  history's  page  loud  its  sinnings  are  told; 
In  the  marriage  mart  our  daughters  are  sold. 
A  master  whose  heart  is  ruthless  and  cold; 
Gathering  men  into  Satan's  own  fold  — 
Gate  of  a  prison,  to  pen  and  to  hold; 
Fashioning  men  into  hell's  brutal  mould. 
God  will  not  rest  till  its  passing  is  told. 
Hateful,  defiling,  omnipotent  Gold ! 

At  present,  God  is  at  the  bottom,  and  Gold  is  at  the 
top.  To  reverse  that  ordering,  whereby  God  shall  be  on 
top  and  Gold  at  the  bottom  —  could  there  be  a  blesseder, 
diviner  overturning? 

Exactly  that  is  what  is  meant  by  social  revolution. 
And  it  is  the  creed  of  our  church. 

"  Lord  of  the  blood-red  banner  "  may  need  a  word  of 
commentary  because  many  have  got  the  notion  that  So- 
cialism's flag  of  red  is  symbolic  of  a  bloody  assault  against 
the  upholders  of  the  present  order.  The  truth  is  quite 
the  contrary.  The  red  in  our  banner  emblemizes  the  one 
blood  that  is  in  the  veins  of  all  the  people  of  the  earth. 
Outwardly  the  nations  and  tribes  in  the  world  are 
of  different  aspect.  Color  and  features  and  hair  and  stat- 
ure and  manners  and  speech  are  so  many  wedges  doing  a 
divisive  work.  But  prick  under  the  skin  and  you  will  find 
in  them  all  a  blood  of  one  and  the  selfsame  color.  So  that 
it  becomes  the  natural  emblem  of  unity,  a  scarlet  thread 
internationalizing  the  tribal  banners  now  so  bloodily  ar- 
rayed each  against  the  other,  and  forecasting  a  day  when 
the  world  family  will  be  a  fact  and  not  purely  a  fiction 
of  the  poets.  Could  the  Democrat  of  Galilee,  who  left 
his  carpenter's  bench  to  lead  his  fellows  to  freedom,  find 
a  fitter  employ  to-day  than  as  Captain  of  this  red-ban- 
nered host,  whose  battlewords  are  peace  and  justice  and 
brotherhood  ? 

Which  is  not  to  say  that  Socialism  is  a  movement  of 


LETTERS  FKOM  PRISON  103 

universal,  unenquiring  amiability.  The  Irishman  who  an- 
nounced that  he  meant  to  have  peace  in  his  house  if  he 
had  to  fight  for  it,  displayed  therein  a  very  real  measure 
of  insight  and  philosophic  grasp.  "  Peace  at  any  price," 
is  a  counterfeit  thing;  an  affair  of  outward  profession  and 
inward  aversion.  We  of  the  Revolution  Church  recognize 
the  presence  of  economic  classes  terribly  in  the  world;  a 
presence  which  makes  for  discord  and  not  for  harmony. 
Never  were  inequalities  of  human  fortune  more  steep  than 
to-day.  And  hourly  they  are  becoming  steeper.  To  sing 
"  God's  in  His  heaven,  all's  right  with  the  world  "  is  to 
stamp  oneself  a  lying  prophet.  God's  in  his  heaven  — 
quite  true.  But  all  is  not  by  any  means  right  with  the 
world;  and  it  is  becoming  more  unright  with  each  day  that 
adds  its  fatal  quota  to  the  calendar.  Rich  and  poor  is  a 
relation  of  master  and  slave.  To-day  the  rich  are  becom- 
ing richer  with  fatalest  momentum.  Thereby  they  are 
growing  more  masterfully  master,  and  the  poor  are  going 
into  an  ever  more  cruel  and  desperate  bondage.  And  this, 
notwithstanding  the  personal  kindliness  of  many  in  the 
master  class.  Charity  covers  a  multitude  of  economic 
sins,  has  been  the  principle  of  these.  But  it  is  fast  losing 
its  power  to  hypnotize.  The  people  are  waking  to  the 
deadly  workings  of  an  unjust  economic  law.  And  no 
amount  of  benevolence  in  the  disbursement  of  an  income 
will  much  longer  atone  for  extortion  in  the  origin  of  that 
income. 

Therefore  the  militant  clauses  in  the  covenant  one  signs 
upon  joining  the  Revolution  Church.  We  are  hostile  to 
the  present  scheme  of  things,  for  it  is  a  scheme  that  makes 
for  the  survival  of  the  brutalest.  A  competitive  civiliza- 
tion glorifies  the  acquisitive  type  of  man  and  makes  for 
the  extinction  of  the  type  in  whom  altruism  and  a  regard 
for  the  gracious,  kindly,  unselfish  arts  are  uppermost. 
Against  such  a  civilization  we  are  in  utter  antagonism. 
And  this,  out  of  a  passionate  affection  for  fellowship. 
The  Prince  of  Peace  we  follow  is  for  that  very  reason  a 


104  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Captain  of  War.  He  is  of  sagacity  to  know  the  folly  of 
attempting  to  live  on  peaceful  terms  with  the  federated 
destroyers  of  the  public  peace. 

Ours,  therefore,  is  the  Church  of  Social  Revolution. 
We  purpose  an  alteration  in  society's  structure  from  the 
ground  up.  The  fault  is  not  in  this  feature  or  in  that. 
The  very  plan  upon  which  the  present  edifice  was  built  is 
the  devil's  plan.  All  against  each,  and  each  against  all. 
Therefore  the  change  must  be  radical,  extending  clear 
down  to  the  foundation  upon  which  the  building  reposes. 
Reform  will  not  avail.  You  can't  change  a  gatling  gun 
into  a  printing  press  by  piecemeal  process.  The  two  ma- 
chines are  designed  on  a  different  pattern,  to  turn  out  a 
different  product.  An  attempt  to  alter  the  gatling  gun 
into  a  printing  press  would  only  result  in  spoiling  it  as  a 
gun  without  making  it  into  a  press.  There  is  a  way 
whereby  the  transformation  can  be  effected.  The  gatling 
gun  must  be  melted  up  and  its  metal  poured  into  new 
molds. 

So  with  the  attempt  to  cure  our  ills  by  tinkering  up  the 
present  order.  Social  reformers  have  been  at  the  task 
now  for  long  years.  And  with  what  result?  Steadily 
the  social  distress  has  been  mounting.  The  chasm  be- 
tween the  Haves  and  the  Have-nots  is  widening.  Widen- 
ing, moreover,  at  a  constantly  accelerating  rate.  The 
only  performance  accomplished  by  the  school  of  social  re- 
formers has,  been  to  create  a  wide  amount  of  friction  in 
the  workings  of  the  present  machine,  without  giving  us 
any  other.  Reform  is  powerless.  Competition  as  the 
formative  idea  for  human  society  has  come  to  its  perfect 
work.  It  was  the  devil's  idea  and  has  been  found  want- 
ing. It  must  give  way  to  God's  idea,  cooperation,  let  the 
cost  be  what  it  will. 

To  organize  the  world's  life  upon  a  principle  so  squarely 
different  from  the  one  now  in  use,  means  a  tremendous 
change.  And  that  is  why  we  call  ourselves  Church  of  the 
Social  Revolution.  No  other  word  is  strong  enough  to  ex- 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  105 

press  the  intensity  and  extensity  of  the  alterations  that 
are  required.  "  Revolution  "  has  in  many  minds  an  as- 
sociation of  blood  and  turbulence  and  all  manner  of  wild- 
ness.  But  this  quality  of  rashness  and  headlong  fury  is 
not  essential  to  it.  The  word  is  exactly  used  when  it  is 
made  to  mean  a  deed  of  completion  and  thoroughgoing- 
ness,  wherein  no  compromise  is  accepted  and  no  distraction 
permitted.  To  such  a  work  of  completedness,  a  mood  of 
poise  and  circumspection  is  not  only  possible  but  essen- 
tial. 

Indeed,  it  is  in  order  to  assure  that  poised  and  orderly 
state  of  mind  in  the  work,  that  we  couple  together  the  two 
parts  in  our  name,  "  Church  "  and  "  Social  Revolution." 
Each  needs  the  other.  Too  much  has  the  Church  in  times 
past  withdrawn  its  mellow  richness  of  dream-power  and 
its  sobering  weight,  from  contact  with  the  tumults  and  the 
rcugh-and-tumble  of  folk  uprisings.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  uprisings  of  labor  in  the  past  have  withdrawn  them- 
selves too  much  from  the  ripe  historicity  and  stern  sobrie- 
ties of  the  Church.  And  the  divorce  has  told  miserably  on 
both  parties  to  the  estrangement,  blasting  the  Church  with 
sterility  and  abandoning  the  folk  movement  to  wild  and 
irresponsible  leadership. 

The  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  seeks  to  reunite 
the  divorced  couple.  To  the  folk  uprising  it  brings  divine 
sanction  and  enriching  gifts  from  the  kingdom  that  is 
spiritual.  To  the  Church,  in  the  contrary  direction,  it 
brings  fructifying  contact  with,  the  world  of  living  men, 
the  solid  wholesome  realities  of  the  life  industrial;  over- 
laying the  earthliness  of  things  economic,  with  the  halo  of 
a  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land. 

In  so  doing  we  believe  we  shall  accomplish  a  dual 
purpose.  We  shall  both  make  the  social  revolution  a 
certainty,  and  at  the  same  time  steer  its  energies  into 
beneficent  constructive  channels.  Religion  is  always  a 
principle  of  intensity.  Coupled  up  hitherto  with  the  con- 
servative faction,  it  has  made  that  conservatism  into  a  con- 


106  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

servatism  indeed,  solemnizing  the  status  quo  into  a  sacra- 
mental and  fire-girt  Sinai,  whither  the  impious  feet  of  the 
innovator  dare  not  come.  Coupled  up  with  revolution, 
its  intensifying  power  will  be  equally  manifest.  It  will 
consecrate  the  revolution  against  all  thought  of  compro- 
mise or  surrender,  and  gear  it  to  the  omnipotent  enginery 
of  the  skies. 

But  precisely  in  so  doing  it  will  take  from  revolution 
the  conflagrating  fury  that  hitherto  has  made  it  a  menace. 
A  revolution  that  has  Lord  God  in  it  will  be  a  revolution 
indeed.  But  it  will  be  a  beneficent  revolution  —  a  jolly 
earthquake,  if  the  reader  will  permit  the  phrase ;  an  intelli- 
gent cyclone,  directing  its  tempestuousness  against  the 
refuse  and  sparing  the  beautiful  things  that  life  has  erected 
through  a  long  succession  of  experimenting  and  fine  en- 
deavors. The  revolution  is  going  to  come.  Be  very  sure 
of  that.  The  only  question  is,  shall  it  be  a  revolution  up- 
ward into  the  light,  or  a  backward  lurch  to  savagery  and 
primeval  dark?  The  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  is 
an  attempt  to  bring  the  former  of  those  alternatives  to 
pass.  We  are  summoning  the  people  of  education  and 
talents  and  culture  and  social  position  to  enlist  in  class 
alignment  in  whole-hearted  self-commitment  to  labor's 
high  redemption.  There  are  times  when  social  reconstruc- 
tion is  the  holiest  task  in  which  a  man  can  invest  his  ener- 
gies and  his  influence. 

BOUCK  WHITE, 
City  Jail,  New  York  City. 


BAPTISTS  DIVIDE  ON  THE  SOCIAL  ISSUE 

Reverend  Dr.  Cornelius  Woelfkin, 

Fifth  Avenue-Calvary-Baptist 

Church,   57th   St.,  at   Sixth 

Avenue,  New  York  City. 
Dear  Sir: 

The  announcement  that  the  Fifth  Avenue  and  Calvary 
Churches  are  to  sunder  relations,  has  been  made  the  occa- 
sion by  the  papers  once  more  to  couple  my  name  with 
yours.  I  see  that  they  are  attributing  to  my  six  months' 
imprisonment  one  of  the  causes  for  the  failure  of  the  plan 
to  merge  your  two  churches  and  with  the  present  decision 
that  your  church  shall  go  back  to  its  Fifth  Avenue  site  in 
order  that  the  Calvary  Church  may  be  unencumbered  by 
associations  with  the  name  of  the  rich.  It  is  also  being 
hinted  that  such  a  move  is  a  moral  victory  for  me. 

I  beg  you  to  believe  I  am  moved  by  no  spirit  of  gratifica- 
tion. Rather  I  am  writing  this  letter  to  suggest  a  way 
out  of  a  situation  that  apparently  is  proving  to  you  more 
and  more  embarrassing.  I  have  been  told  that  you  made 
the  statement  while  I  was  serving  my  Blackwell's  Island 
term  that  if  it  were  possible  you  would  gladly  serve  three 
of  my  six  months  yourself.  Naturally  such  a  remedy  of 
that  grave  miscarriage  of  justice  was  and  is  impracticable. 
There  is,  however,  a  way  in  which  you  can  atone  for  the 
sadness  of  that  whole  affair,  and  that  is  by  accepting  now 
the  request  I  made  to  you  last  spring,  namely,  that  your 
church  and  ours  hold  a  joint  session  at  some  time  and 
place  to  be  mutually  agreed  upon,  in  friendly  conference 
on  the  subject:  Did  Jesus  Teach  the  Immortality  of  Be- 
ing Rich. 

I  repeat  here  what  I  said  in  my  letter  to  you  last  May : 
It  is  the  firm  belief  of  our  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution 

107 


108  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

that  the  tragic  situation  in  which  our  industrialism  finds 
itself  to-day  is  not  due  to  the  personal  malice  of  any  in 
the  masterclass,  but  rather  to  a  false  and  pernicious  sys- 
tem in  which  the  rich  are  hopelessly  entangled.  I  am  an 
ardent  disciple  of  Jesus  the  Carpenter;  his  teachings  as 
rediscovered  by  modern  biblical  scholarship  hold  the  key 
to  the  solution  of  this  entire  problem. 

If  you  grant  this  request,  I  shall  be  glad  to  forgive  and 
forget  my  six  months  behind  prison  bars.  Indeed  I  would 
then  count  them  six  months  of  valuable  service  rendered 
by  me  to  the  social  problem.  For  your  church  represents 
the  richest  of  the  world ;  our  church  represents  the  poorest 
of  the  world.  We  are  near  neighbors.  The  chasm  be- 
tween the  rich  and  the  poor  is  each  day  growing  more 
portentous.  It  is  not  at  all  an  idle  dream  that  if  we 
could  get  together  in  a  joint  meeting  such  as  I  have 
pleaded  with  you  to  grant,  and  so  lift  this  at  present  angry 
situation  into  the  realm  of  the  spiritual,  a  happy  issue 
out  of  our  social  unblessedness  might  be  the  result. 

In  so  doing  you  as  the  pastor  of  some  of  the  master- 
class of  our  day  could  perhaps  relieve  them  from  a  situa- 
tion which  they  are  finding  progressively  uncomfortable. 
The  discovery  that  riches  and  poverty  side  by  side  in  the 
same  society  means  mastership  for  the  rich  and  servitude 
for  the  poor,  is  growing  very  widespread;  resentment 
against  those  who  consent  to  be  rich  in  a  world  where 
other  people  are  poor,  is  augmenting  daily.  Great  lone- 
liness on  the  part  of  the  rich  is  resulting.  I  know  of  few 
spectacles  more  piteous  than  of  that  home  at  Pocantico 
Hills  so  sorrowfully  debarred  from  contact  with  their  fel- 
low human  beings.  If  they  could  once  learn  that  The 
Carpenter  of  Galilee  unto  whom  they  are  so  devoutly  at- 
tached, taught  the  immorality  of  great  riches  side  by  side 
with  great  poverty,  they  would  surely  turn  from  their 
idolatry  of  money  and  employ  their  wealth  to  transform 
our  society  into  one  of  fellowship  instead  of  as  at  present 
one  of  cleavage  and  dismemberment. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  109 

I  would  gladly  come  before  your  congregation  this  com- 
ing Sunday  morning  and  convey  to  them  in  person  (as  I 
was  going  to  do  last  Spring)  this  invitation  to  a  joint 
meeting  of  our  church  and  yours.  However,  remember- 
ing Sunday,  May  10,  last,  of  course  I  will  not  present  my- 
self unless  you  invite  me  so  to  do.  Kindly  note  my  change 
of  address.  Also  of  my  phone  number,  Chelsea  3738.  I 
ask  leave  to  remain, 

Faithfully  yours  in  the  fellowship  of  The  Carpenter, 

BOUCK  WHITE. 


HOW  TO  SOLVE  UNEMPLOYMENT 

CHURCH  OF  THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTION 

165  West  23rd  St.,  New  York  City. 


To  the  Mayor,  John  Purroy  Mitchel, 

City  Hall,  New  York  City 
Honorable  and  dear  Sir: 

An  imperfect  report  of  my  address  on  the  unemploy- 
ment situation,  at  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  last 
Sunday  afternoon,  has  got  into  the  papers.  By  resolu- 
tion of  the  Church  I  am  directed  to  send  to  you  an  au- 
thentic abstract  of  my  words:  The  proposal  I  brought 
forward  is  a  remedy  for  unemployment  by  Municipal  In- 
dustries. It  is,  that  New  York  City  shall  establish  a 
Department  of  Municipal  Industry,  and  through  this  shall 
take  over  as  many  of  the  idle  factories  as  shall  be  neces- 
sary, run  them  at  full  time,  pay  the  current  rate  of  wages, 
and  distribute  the  product  with  the  motive  of  social  bene- 
fit rather  than  primarily  profit.  The  City  through  pub- 
lic and  private  channels  is  preparing  to  spend  a  large 
sum  of  money  to  cope  with  the  unemployment  problem. 
I  beg  leave  to  state  that  in  no  other  way  could  that  money 
be  disbursed  with  as  efficient  a  return  in  the  shape  of  social 
peace  and  human  well  being. 

There  are  two  other  methods  of  meeting  the  unemploy- 
ment evil.  One  is  by  the  method  of  relief,  such  as  soup 
kitchens,  free  lodgings,  and  bread  line;  and  secondly,  mu- 
nicipal works,  by  which  is  meant  out-of-door  tasks,  like 
sewers,  water  works,  and  streets.  The  latter  is  imprac- 
ticable; the  great  bulk  of  the  unemployed  are  industrial 
workers ;  to  ask  indoor  workers  to  undertake  out-of-doors 
tasks,  particularly  in  the  winter  season,  is  impossible. 
Many  stenographers  for  example  are  on  the  verge  of  desti- 
tution ;  to  ask  one  of  these  to  take  a  pick  and  shovel  and 

110 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  111 

earn  her  living  in  a  sewer  trench  —  the  public  work  solu- 
tion is  hardly  a  rational  thing  for  a  modern  municipality 
seriously  to  propose.  As  to  the  other  alternative,  soup 
kitchens,  I  say  to  you  that  we  have  passed  the  stage  in 
democratic  development  when  charity  can  take  care  of  an 
industrial  breakdown.  The  unemployed  ask  not  for  free 
soup.  They  ask  for  work. 

I  recognize  that  municipal  industries  at  first  hearing 
strike  the  listener  as  a  most  revolutionary  proposal.  But 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  situation  quite  out  of  the  ordi- 
nary; and  extraordinary  measures  are  demanded.  In  an 
address  before  the  ministers  of  Baltimore  a  week  ago  I 
brought  forward  the  question  along  the  lines  I  am  here 
stating  it.  If  you  will  consult  the  Baltimore  American  of 
the  last  few  days,  you  will  perceive  that  Municipal  In- 
dustries are  being  seriously  discussed  as  the  remedy  for 
Baltimore's  unemployment.  The  situation  in  our  City  at 
this  moment  probably  surpasses  in  the  extent  of  unemploy- 
ment and  in  the  degree  of  misery  caused,  any  previous 
condition  New  York  has  known.  The  war  in  Europe 
which  is  partly  —  only  partly  —  responsible  for  the  situa- 
tion, means  the  breakdown  of  large  areas  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. In  a  crisis  of  this  kind,  I  submit  to  you,  sir,  that 
the  time  has  come  to  break  with  traditional  modes  of 
thought  and  approach  the  problem  with  a  totally  fresh 
handling. 

I  need  not  remind  you  of  the  dangerous  quality  in  the 
present  situation.  I  am  the  minister  of  a  church  that  is 
in  close  contact  with  the  workers.  I  speak  therefore  with 
the  authoritative  note  that  comes  from  first  hand  knowl- 
edge ;  and  I  say  to  you  that  unless  something  is  done, 
danger  is  threatened.  Tens  of  thousands  of  self-respect- 
ing citizens  at  the  present  moment  are  in  destitution  and 
degradation,  that  is  not  only  deteriorating  the  moral  char- 
acter, but  is  proving  and  is  going  to  prove  a  fertile  seed- 
bed of  many  kinds  of  criminality.  I  am  informed  that  the 
armories  in  our  city  have  received  instructions  from  the 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Governor  of  the  State  to  bring  their  regiments  and  equip- 
ment up  to  a  fighting  force  of  one  hundred  per  cent, 
efficiency;  the  reason  being  that  the  social  disturbances 
that  this  winter  of  unemployment  is  likely  to  bring  forth 
will  perhaps  make  unusual  demands  upon  the  military  arm 
of  the  city  and  state.  I  appeal  to  you,  Sir,  and  through 
you  to  the  civic  mind  and  social  heart  of  this  metropolis, 
that  repressive  force  is  not  the  proper  approach  to  the 
handling  of  this  question. 

It  would  indeed  require  a  broad  sentiment  among  the 
people  to  back  you  and  your  advisors  in  undertaking 
municipal  industries.  But  I  believe  the  time  is  ripe  for 
such  a  sentiment  to  focus.  The  ministers  of  the  various 
churches  are  rapidly  awakening  to  the  fact  that  social 
conditions  are  a  legitimate  and  necessary  field  for  min- 
isterial activity.  The  moral  decadence  resulting  from  the 
present  unemployment  is  breaking  down  the  standards  of 
order  and  decency  in  wide  areas  of  our  population.  With 
the  churches  ready  to  back  you  and  with  the  civic  agencies 
of  a  voluntary  sort  likewise  tired  of  the  old  remedies  which 
do  not  remedy,  the  moment  is  psychological  for  a  construc- 
tive method  at  last  to  be  undertaken. 

In  my  address  last  Sunday,  after  pointing  out  the  dan- 
gerousness  of  the  present  situation,  I  stated  that  if  New 
York  City  refuses  to  undertake  the  opening  of  these  idle 
factories  and  has  nothing  better  to  offer  than  apathy  and 
the  blunderings  of  previous  years, the  workers  would  be  jus- 
tified in  entering  an  idle  factor}*-  and  setting  it  in  operation 
themselves.  True,  this  seizure  of  a  dead  industrial  plant  by 
workers,  though  for  purposes  of  constructive  activity  and 
not  at  all  for  purposes  of  devastation,  would  be  extra-legal ; 
but  that  such  a  seizure  by  a  band  of  the  unemployed  would 
be  anti-legal,  I  do  not  believe.  Suicide  is  forbidden  by 
statutory  enactment.  The  slow  suicide  which  is  taking 
place  on  the  part  of  many  thousands  of  our  people  at  this 
moment,  through  cold  and  privation  and  famine,  is  dis- 
tinctly unconstitutional  and  illegal.  For  a  man  to  starve 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  113 

to  death  peaceably,  is  a  crime  against  himself  and  against 
society.  But  that  is  quite  what  is  taking  place.  If  to 
prevent  that  large  and  wide-spreading  illegality,  the  en- 
tering of  a  factory  by  force  and  the  starting  of  its  wheels 
without  the  consent  of  the  established  authorities,  should 
be  undertaken,  the  worst  that  could  be  said  against  it 
would  be  that  it  was  the  lesser  of  two  illegalities. 

I  recognize  that  such  an  entrance  of  an  idle  fac- 
tory might  have  consequences  as  far  reaching  as  the  as- 
sault upon  the  Bastille  in  Paris,  July  14,  1789.  But  I 
am  compelled  by  the  sights  that  I  daily  witness,  to  per- 
ceive the  slow  starvation  and  the  consequent  moral  de- 
cadence of  tens  of  thousands  of  our  people.  And  in  pres- 
ence of  this  awful  fact  I  am  bold  to  urge  measures  that 
are  unconventional  but  are  not  unrighteous.  I  ask  you 
to  believe,  sir,  that  I  am  animated  by  a  constructive  spirit. 
New  York  City  has  brains  enough,  and  money  enough  and 
heart  enough  to  establish  a  Department  of  Municipal  In- 
dustries if  it  will  but  once  awaken  to  the  terrible  need. 
Take  shoes  as  a  type.  The  people  need  shoes.  The  ma- 
chinery is  here  for  the  making  of  shoes.  The  workers  are 
dying  for  the  privilege  of  entering  and  starting  the  idle 
machinery.  To  ask  that  New  York  City  set  itself  at  once 
to  bring  these  three  facts  together  and  thus  transform  a 
situation  which  is  now  a  social  hell  into  a  vivified  orderly 
and  industrious  society,  is  not  to  ask  aught  unreasonable. 
An  awakened  civic  conscience  is  all.  If  I  and  the  Church 
of  the  Social  Revolution  can  be  of  any  assistance  to  you 
in  bringing  to  pass  this  awakening,  we  are  at  your  service. 

Faithfully  yours, 
BOUCK  WHITE. 


BOUCK  WHITE  ON  BLACKWELL'S  ISLAND* 

I  remember  as  an  undergraduate  in  Harvard,  going 
one  day  on  a  tour  of  investigation  down  to  Deer  Island, 
your  Boston  penal  colony,  here  in  the  harbor.  On  the 
boat  were  a  batch  of  prisoners  being  taken  down ;  the  grist 
of  that  day's  grinding  by  the  Boston  police  courts.  As 
I  passed  by  the  pen  in  the  boat  where  the  prisoners  were 
herded,  I  looked  in.  The  sight  of  that  mass  of  humanity, 
unkempt,  unwashed,  in  every  stage  of  vagabondage  and 
decrepitude  and  disease  and  filth,  massed  together  in  a 
room  four  times  too  small  to  accommodate  them,  for  all 
the  world  like  dogs  in  a  kennel  (except  that  dogs  in  the 
kennel  have  more  breathing  space  than  these),  the  sight 
made  on  my  young  mind  an  impression  of  horror  and  re- 
vulsion. That  I  should  myself  ever  be  thrown  into  such 
a  den,  as  a  part  of  that  human  wreckage,  was  unthinkable 
to  me. 

And  yet  that  was  the  fate  that  awaited  me  when  I  was 
taken  from  the  New  York  City  Jail  over  to  the  penal 
colony  on  Blackwell's  Island  in  the  East  River.  A  steam- 
boat of  about  the  same  size  as  the  one  that  plies  in  Bos- 
ton Harbor  awaited  us  at  the  City  Dock. 

We  were  marched  down  the  gangplank;  a  great  iron 
door  rolled  back  upon  its  hinges;  and  we  were  thrust 
into  a  pen  amidships  in  the  boat,  a  room  about  half  the 
size  of  this  platform  from  which  I  am  speaking  to-night ; 
it  was  fifteen  feet  square  and  about  eight  feet  wide.  In 
that  tiny  room,  a  room  too  small  to  be  the  bedroom  for 
two  persons,  we  were  thrust  in,  forty  of  us.  Locked  in, 
we  were  left  to  steam  and  stew  in  there  for  a  space  of  two 

*  From  an  address  entitled  "  Prisons  and  Progress,"  delivered  by 
him  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  December  21,  1914,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Boston  School  of  Social  Science. 

114 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  115 

hours.  It  was  the  worst  single  experience  of  all  of  my 
six  months'  imprisonment. 

After  the  prisoners  get  over  on  the  Island,  and  have 
had  the  bath  with  hot  water  and  soap  which  is  given  to 
every  comer,  they  get  rid  of  the  old  clothing,  and  put  on 
the  prison  uniform,  which  at  least  has  the  merit  of  clean- 
liness. The  conditions  then  are  tolerable.  But  this, 
you  will  remember,  was  on  the  way  to  the  prison.  Those 
forty  in  there  with  me  were  the  sweepings  and  refuse  of  a 
metropolitan  city,  representing  many  nationalities,  and 
all  degrees  of  dirt  and  drunkenness  and  social  disease. 
Some  were  on  the  verge  of  delirium  tremens,  the  result 
of  a  prolonged  spree,  which  the  strong  but  kindly  arm  of 
the  police  had  abruptly  terminated,  to  the  regret  of  the 
poor  chap  himself,  but  in  some  cases  to  the  saving  of  his 
life.  The  filth  was  indescribable.  One  poor  fellow,  a  vic- 
tim of  drugs  (I  believe  he  died  in  the  prison  hospital 
the  next  day),  was  stretched  out  on  a  bench  in  a  state 
of  dying  stupor.  Vermin  was  on  the  clothing  of  a  num- 
ber, the  result  of  days  and  nights  of  vagabondage,  wherein 
they  had  had  no  place  to  sleep,  or  to  remove  their  clothing, 
to  say  nothing  about  taking  a  wash. 

To  touch  the  garments  of  these  was  to  be  infected  with 
the  vermin  that  were  crawling  over  them.  Yet  one  could 
not  help  touching  them,  for  we  were  so  closely  crowded 
that  we  had  not  even  room  to  turn  around,  so  thickly  were 
we  packed. 

The  worst  part  of  the  whole  experience,  however,  was 
the  absence  of  ventilation.  There  may  be  some  pretext 
of  an  excuse  offered  for  the  neglect  of  the  authorities  in 
failing  to  provide  a  larger  room  for  the  prisoners. 
(What  excuse  can  be  offered  I  know  not,  for  the  boat  was 
big  enough  to  have  provided  ample  quarters.)  But  no 
excuse  whatever  can  be  advanced  for  the  absence  of  ven- 
tilation. 

There  were  two  small  windows,  the  sash  opening 
slightly  from  the  top.  We  tried  desperately  to  open  the 


116  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

lower  sash,  but  found  that  no  provision  had  been  made 
for  that  possibility.  The  danger  of  escape  cannot  be 
pleaded,  for  ample  bars  were  across  the  window  on  the 
outside.  Furthermore,  the  absence  of  knowledge  of  the 
unhygienic  conditions  cannot  be  pleaded;  apparently 
warnings  had  been  issued  to  the  authorities  in  time  past; 
for  on  one  side  of  the  room,  on  a  shelf,  was  an  electric  fan. 
Apparently,  in  warm  weather,  so  many  of  the  prisoners 
had  fainted  from  lack  of  air  that  the  authorities  had  been 
stirred  to  the  point  of  installing  this  fan.  But  a  fan 
does  not  bring  in  new  air;  it  merely  stirs  up  the  air  that 
is  already  in  there.  Outside  of  that  room,  sweeping  up 
and  down  the  East  River,  were  life-giving  currents  of  air 
from  the  great  ocean.  Tides  and  tides  of  oxygen,  but  we 
were  effectively  shut  from  it;  and  it  seems  never  to  have 
occurred  to  the  politician  mind  of  the  New  York  City 
Department  of  Correction  to  open  a  space  and  let  in  the 
air.  The  only  remedy  was  the  costly  one  of  providing 
an  electric  fan  to  stir  up  the  dead  air  inside.  A  carpenter 
in  half  a  day  could  fix  those  windows  so  as  to  open  them 
top  and  bottom,  and  thus  provide  a  circulating  current. 
But  in  all  the  years  that  New  York  City  has  been  trans- 
porting prisoners  to  Blackwell's  Island  it  has  never  oc- 
curred to  the  authorities  to  set  that  carpenter  at  work. 
I  am  bold  to  state  that  diseases  were  contracted,  during 
these  two  interminable  hours  in  that  worse-than-the-Black- 
Hole-of-Calcutta,  which  remained  with  some  of  those  poor 
wretches  to  contaminate  all  the  rest  of  the  years  of  their 
lives.  Moreover  the  reason  for  the  imbecility  of  the  au- 
thorities in  this  matter  is  not  far  to  seek.  Prisoners  are  of 
a  class  that  have  no  voice  to  articulate  their  wrongs  in  the 
public  press,  and  therefore  the  condition  goes  on  without 
amelioration.  One  of  the  best  pieces  of  social  service 
which  a  person  of  intelligence  can  render,  is  to  get  him- 
self arrested  occasionally,  in  order  that  he  may  experience 
prison  life  from  the  inside,  and  bring  the  situation  into 
articulated  form  before  the  public. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  117 

Arriving  at  the  Island  we  were  marched  two  and  two 
across  the  yard,  and  into  the  great  prison.  There  we 
were  stripped  and  given  the  bath;  and  then  clad  in 
prison  garb;  even  the  underclothing  was  of  prison  make. 
The  garb,  as  you  know,  is  of  horizontal  stripes,  thus 
giving  to  the  chap  who  wears  it  a  very  good  resemblance 
to  a  hyena.  These  horizontal  stripes  extend  even  to  the 
cap  which  is  given  him.  And  inasmuch  as  all  other  cloth- 
ing is  forbidden  him,  this  garb  provides  a  very  effective 
safeguard  against  escape. 

The  shoes  present  the  one  unhygienic  feature,  since 
they  are  not  changed  after  each  individual's  use  of  them, 
but  are  thrown  back  into  the  common  pile.  The  shoes 
that  I  drew  were  in  a  condition  of  dilapidation  quite  be- 
yond description.  They  had  been  worn  by  I  know  not 
how  many  generations  of  feet,  before  they  were  handed  on 
to  me.  No  attempt  apparently  is  made  to  sterilize  the 
shoes,  and  they  present  an  uncleanly  spectacle  that  is  bet- 
ter not  described,  if  any  of  you  have  tender  ears.  A  pass- 
ing incident  while  I  was  trying  to  fit  my  feet  into  shoes 
mateless  and  matchless  from  the  pile,  remains  with  me. 
At  my  side  on  the  bench  was  an  elderly  man,  white  of  hair, 
and  showing  even  in  the  ruins  the  marks  of  a  once  fine 
manhood.  The  prison  doctor  had  apparently  detected 
the  need  of  attention  in  his  case,  and  had  sent  him  a  po- 
tion from  the  hospital. 

It  came  by  the  hand  of  an  attendant  while  I  was  at  his 
side.  The  man  however  was  so  far  gone  in  the  early 
stages  of  delirium  tremens,  that  he  could  not  pick  up  the 
glass,  his  hand  being  too  unsteady  to  lift  the  liquid  from 
the  tray  to  his  mouth.  He  therefore  had  to  ask  the  at- 
tendant to  do  it  for  him.  That  was  a  sample  of  the  dis- 
eased mass  of  humanity  that  is  packed  together  in  that 
den  of  a  prison  ship, —  nearly  half  a  hundred  men,  in  a 
room  only  large  enough  for  ten. 

From  the  bath  and  dressing  room  we  were  taken  to  our 
cells.  Mine  was  No.  79,  up  on  the  top  tier.  It  was  a 


118  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

room  of  some  capaciousness,  and  contained  thirty-eight 
or  forty  prisoners  besides  myself.  Iron  shelves  let  down 
from  the  wall  on  hinges,  swinging  from  a  chain,  and  on 
these  we  slept;  except  that  some  of  the  floor  space  in  the 
middle  was  taken  up  with  iron  cots.  Mattresses  of  course 
are  out  of  the  question  in  prison.  Our  bedding  consisted 
of  two  blankets,  one  to  sleep  on  to  cover  the  springs,  and 
the  other  to  cover  oneself  with.  There  seems  to  be  no 
attempt  made  to  wash  the  blankets  after  one  prisoner  is 
discharged,  and  the  blankets  are  handed  on  to  another. 
Therefore  those  that  I  slept  in  had  been  used  by  I  know 
not  how  many  criminals  before  me,  and  their  state  of  un- 
hygienic dirt  is  quite  beyond  proper  narration.  I 
speedily  caught  an  infectious  disease  around  my  neck,  ap- 
parently from  these  blankets,  which  eruption  lasted  with 
me  off  and  on  during  most  of  my  six  months  in  jail. 

Why  an  incoming  prisoner  is  not  given  a  clean  set  of 
blankets  is  a  mystery  that  the  authorities  should  be  called 
upon  to  explain.  Hot  water  is  in  abundance,  laundry  soap 
in  this  day  is  not  costly.  The  bringing  together  of  these 
filthy  blankets  and  hot  water  and  soap  ought  not  to  be  an 
undertaking  beyond  the  mentality  of  those  in  charge  of  our 
prisons.  But  it  seems  to  be  so  at  present.  An  explana- 
tion may  be  found  in  the  political  control  of  our  great 
cities  to-day ;  they  are  run  by  the  master  class  for  the 
benefit  of  the  master  class  ;  and  the  poor  dogs  at  the  bottom 
get  but  scant  attention.  Unless  public  rumor  is  a  public 
liar,  the  present  head  of  the  prisons  in  New  York  City, 
Miss  Katherine  Davis  owes  her  appointment  to  John  D. 
Rockefeller  who  contributed  a  large  sum  of  money  to  the 
election  of  the  present  mayor,  and  in  return  asked  the 
mayor  to  appoint  his  personal  friend,  Miss  Davis,  to  be 
the  head  of  the  present  department. 

In  saying  this  I  do  not  mean  to  indicate  that  Miss  Davis 
is  personally  incompetent.  I  do  say,  however,  that  in  any 
point  where  there  would  be  a  clash  between  the  interests 
of  the  rich  at  the  top  and  the  interest  of  the  wretches  at 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  119 

the  bottom,  the  wretches  at  the  bottom  would  be  the  losers. 

The  motley  crew  who  were  my  cellmates  in  No.  79  there 
in  the  Blackwell's  Island  prison,  would  demand  the  pen  of 
a  Tolstoi  or  Gorki  competently  to  describe.  They  repre- 
sented many  phases  and  degrees  of  criminality.  There 
were  drug  fiends,  pick-pockets,  sex  criminals,  wife  beaters, 
drunks,  forgers,  gunmen;  indeed  nearly  the  whole  gamut 
of  crime  in  its  picturesque  and  unpicturesque  phases; 
many  nationalities,  colors  and  ages,  youths  and  old  men, 
men  from  refined  families  and  wretches  from  the  mud  gut- 
ter —  we  were  all  huddled  together. 

There  was  no  toilet,  and  no  drinking  water.  Locked 
in  that  cell  all  night  as  we  were,  the  only  toilet  facilities 
consisted  of  filth  buckets,  and  the  only  drinking  water  was 
in  a  wooden  pail  which  we  filled  each  evening  before  the 
great  iron  gate  was  shut  upon  us.  The  state  of  that 
room  with  those  filth  buckets,  by  the  time  morning  came, 
can  only  be  arrived  at  by  those  with  a  realistic  imagina- 
tion. 

Ventilation  was  by  means  of  windows ;  but  this  was  most 
inadequate,  for  the  reason  that  while  those  whose  bunks 
were  near  the  slop  buckets  would  plead  incessantly  through 
the  night  for  the  windows  to  be  opened  because  the  stench 
was  beyond  human  endurance,  those  convicts  whose  cots 
were  near  the  windows  in  many  instances  refused  to  have 
them  opened,  pleading  that  they  could  not  stand  the 
draught. 

The  vermin  were  not  so  bad  for  those  whose  beds  were 
the  movable  cots  on  the  floor.  Their  method  of  steriliza- 
tion, while  primitive,  was  more  or  less  effective.  The  oc- 
cupier of  the  bed  would  build  a  fire  of  old  newspapers  on 
the  cement  floor  of  the  cell,  and  then  hold  his  bed  over  the 
flame  until  the  bugs  had  been  roasted.  But  we  who  had 
bunks  on  the  shelves  fastened  by  hinges  to  the  wall  one 
above  the  other,  could  not  adopt  this  method,  and  the 
state  of  our  bunks  after  generations  of  prisoners  had  oc- 
cupied them,  was  such  as  would  perhaps  better  not  be 


120  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

described  before  an  audience  where  some  nerves  are  per- 
haps susceptible. 

The  conversation  among  my  cell  mates  was  one  of  the 
redeeming  features  of  the  whole  affair,  for  it  was  of  a 
profanity  picturesque  beyond  anything  I  have  ever  known 
elsewhere.  Profanity,  when  it  is  of  an  original  sort,  in 
a  way  ceases  to  be  profane,  and  mounts  into  the  realm  of 
literary  creation.  Their  phrasings  were  not  so  much  pro- 
fanity as  the  poetic  imagery  of  minds  primitively  en- 
vironed, and  for  the  most  part  devout  believers  in  saints 
and  angels  and  deity  and  devils.  Had  I  but  had  the  leis- 
ure to  take  notes,  I  could  have  gleaned  from  the  pro- 
fanities, which  swirled  and  flowed  round  about  me,  a  har- 
vest of  literary  gems  that  would  make  the  fortune  of  a 
fiction  writer.  When  it  is  remembered  that  a  good  part 
of  the  time  inside  their  cell  is  spent  by  the  prisoners  in 
quarreling  with  each  other  (for  the  confinement  produces 
a  state  of  irritability  which  the  prisoners  vent  on  each 
other  when  the  jailers  are  not  available),  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  opportunity  for  the  creation  of  profane  phrases 
is  irresistible. 

In  the  daytime  we  go  to  work.  Roused  in  the  morn- 
ing at  5.30,  we  put  on  our  shoes,  and  are  then  ready  for 
the  day ;  for  as  you  have  probably  guessed,  we  sleep  in  our 
clothes,  and  thus  are  not  out  of  our  clothing  day  or  night. 
When  the  cell  door  is  opened  we  troop  down  to  the  wash 
room,  and  there  in  long  trenches  perform  a  hasty  wash 
of  face  and  heads  and  hands.  Then  comes  breakfast, 
which  sometimes  consisted  of  nothing  but  dry  bread  and 
undrinkable  coffee,  served  in  a  tin  can.  Then  to  work, 
in  whatever  gang  one  happened  to  be.  Mine  was  the 
baker  gang,  and  my  work  consisted  of  passing  the  dough 
over  from  the  kneading  board  to  the  oven.  Also  I  as- 
sisted in  carrying  the  loaves  to  the  store  room  as  they 
came  from  the  ovens.  Part  of  the  time  also  I  was  in  the 
wood  gang,  and  chopped  wood  for  the  ovens.  Towards 
the  latter  part  of  my  imprisonment  I  did  some  carpenter 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

work.  That  always  gives  me  pleasure,  the  experience 
which  taught  me  the  feel  of  the  same  kind  of  tools  in  the 
same  kind  of  work  as  was  done  by  the  Galilean  carpenter 
whom  I  have  chosen  as  the  Master  of  my  ways  and  works. 

After  some  time  on  BlackwelFs  Island  I  was  trans- 
ferred to  Queens  County  Jail  on  the  mainland.  Here 
each  prisoner  had  a  cell  by  himself.  In  the  adjoining  cell 
on  one  side  of  me,  I  remember,  was  a  check  forger,  and 
the  three  cells  on  the  other  side  were  occupied  by  bur- 
glars. Murderers  were  also  a  part  of  the  composite 
medley  that  made  up  our  prison  personnel.  The  solitary 
cell  has  advantages,  in  that  it  permits  of  privacy  after  the 
day's  work  is  done ;  but  it  has  the  disadvantage  of  cramped 
quarters.  Let  those,  who  think  that  their  hall  bedroom 
is  too  small  for  them,  imagine  that  space  reduced  nearly 
one  hundred  per  cent.,  and  they  will  get  an  idea  of  the 
amount  of  space  in  a  prison  cell ;  the  narrowness  of  which 
is  augmented  by  the  fact  that  the  iron  door  which  is  the 
only  means  of  egress  is  slammed  shut  by  the  jailer  out- 
side, and  is  clamped  by  chains,  the  clanging  of  which  one 
can  hear  ominously  from  within. 

I  remember  getting  on  rather  intimate  terms  with  the 
chap  in  the  cell  adjoining  mine.  He  had  been  a  New  York 
gangster  for  many  years  and  knew  the  underworld.  Rec- 
ognizing the  gigantic  powers  that  were  arrayed  against 
me,  and  coming  to  take  a  personal  interest  in  me, 
he  pleaded  as  I  was  about  to  leave  prison  at  the  end  of 
my  term,  that  I  take  care  not  to  go  unnecessarily  into 
danger.  I  asked  him  what  he  meant,  ano!  he  intimated 
that  there  were  alliances  between  wealthy  predatory  in- 
terests and  the  gangster  crowd  in  the  underworld.  Fol- 
lowing up  the  clew,  I  asked  him  point  blank  one  day  if 
he  meant  that  it  is  possible  to  hire  men  in  New  York  City 
to  commit  murder ;  he  said  it  was  not  only  possible,  but  had 
become  reduced  almost  to  a  commercial  commodity.  He 
said  he  knew  leaders  of  gangs  who  controlled  in  the  ag- 
gregate something  like  four  or  five  hundred  followers, 


122  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

any  one  of  whom  would  take  a  man's  life  for  a  stipulated 
sum.  "  What  is  that  sum?  "  I  asked  him;  and  he  replied: 
"  Anywhere  from  twenty-five  dollars  up,  according  to  the 
risk  involved  and  the  amount  of  protection  which  the  fel- 
low could  expect  after  he  had  done  the  deed." 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  report  that  part  of  my  time  at 
Queens  County  Jail  was  engaged  in  making  flower  beds, 
and  in  beautifying  the  prison  yard.  Also  I  obtained  the 
Warden's  permission  to  bring  in  some  of  the  flowers  in 
boxes,  when  the  time  of  frost  came  in  the  autumn.  I  like 
to  think  of  these  flowers  as  now  relieving  to  a  slight  extent 
the  tedium  of  life  there  this  winter,  for  those  sad-faced, 
homeless,  friendless  chaps  I  left  behind  there,  when  the  big 
gate  opened,  November  11,  to  let  me  out. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CRISIS  * 

My  friends:  Last  spring  in  the  coal  mining  region  of 
Colorado,  there  took  place  the  most  pitiful  and  momentous 
event  in  America's  social  history.  At  present  the  drums 
and  tramplings  in  Europe  hold  the  popular  mind.  But 
though  national  war  be  more  spectacular,  it  is  the  social 
war  that  is  writing  the  real  and  permanent  pages  of  his- 
tory. It  highly  befits  us,  therefore,  amid  the  tumult 
and  the  glare  and  the  shouting,  to  pause  and  give  thought 
to  these  deeper  currents.  The  event  referred  to  was  the 
combat  between  the  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company  and 
its  employees,  wherein  seven  score  and  over  of  the  latter 
were  slaughtered  by  hired  gunmen  of  the  company. 

The  insurrection  arose  through  restiveness  of  the  miners 
and  their  families,  in  giving  their  bodies  and  their  brains 
and  their  health,  to  enrich  a  group  of  absentee  owners 
whom  they  had  never  seen,  of  whom  they  rarely  heard, 
and  who  appeared  in  the  life  of  Colorado  purely  as  a  huge 
grasping  palm,  getting  ever,  giving  never ;  a  vast  tentacle, 
fastened  upon  every  miner's  home,  and  sucking  into  itself 
all  the  richness  and  marrow  and  joy  of  their  existence. 
A  Congressional  investigating  committee  traced  the  larg- 
est of  these  absentee  landlords,  in  fact  the  controlling 
ownership  of  the  company  and  therefore  the  chief  extor- 
tioner of  them  all,  to  a  man  of  colossal  wealth  living  here 
in  the  East,  in  his  Pocantico  Palace.  This  Croesus  is  a 
leading  member  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  Church  on 
West  57th  Street  in  this  city.  The  Church  of  the  Social 
Revolution,  of  which  I  am  pastor,  was  at  the  time  on  West 
44th  Street,  a  very  near  neighbor  of  that  other  church, 
and  representing  the  workmen's  side  in  the  Colorado  af- 
fair. For  as  the  Fifth  Avenue  Church  included  in  its 

*  Carnegie  Hall,  Dec.  13,  1914. 

123 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

membership  this  richest  man  in  the  world,  we  in  turn  are 
of  the  poorest  in  the  world.  Therefore  we  thought  to 
help  the  situation  by  establishing  an  interchange  of  views 
with  that  neighbor  church.  It  is  here  we  enter  the  nar- 
rative. 

We  of  the  Revolution  Church  take  the  matter  of  re- 
ligion seriously.  We  hold  that  a  man's  religion,  and  there- 
fore his  view  of  the  universe,  is  the  most  important  thing 
about  him.  For  it  is  the  mold  in  which  his  thinkings  are 
shaped.  And  thinking  is  the  root  of  all  doing. 

We  did  this  Baptist  Church,  therefore,  the  honor  to 
believe  that  the  type  of  religion  it  propagates  is  influ- 
ential in  modeling  the  type  of  conduct  lived  by  its  mem- 
bers. That  is  a  point  indeed  upon  which  they  them- 
selves put  much  stress.  "  Join  our  Church,"  say  they ; 
"  and  it  will  pattern  you  into  its  likeness."  You  can  de- 
termine what  a  Church  teaches  by  what  its  people  prac- 
tice. In  this  I  am  not  saying  that  a  Church  can  be  held 
chargeable  for  the  deeds  of  all  of  its  members.  To  infer 
from  an  intoxicated  man  that  the  church  of  which  he  might 
conceivably  be  a  member  inculcates  intoxication,  would 
be  obviously  unjust.  When,  however  broadly  all  the  mem- 
bers of  a  church,  not  in  one  place  or  time  but  in  all  places 
and  at  all  times,  pursue  a  course  of  conduct,  it  is  valid  to 
infer  that  the  church  teaches  that  course  of  conduct. 
Yes,  it  is  complimentary  so  to  infer.  Otherwise  that 
church  would  be  ineffective  in  getting  its  doctrines  in- 
carnated in  the  lives  of  its  people;  and  therefore  would 
forfeit  its  right  to  existence. 

Extortion  is,  among  the  Baptists,  a  course  of  conduct 
thus  broadly  universal.  Among  the  Methodists  likewise, 
for  that  matter ;  also  among  Episcopalians,  Congregation- 
alists,  Presbyterians,  and  the  residue.  But  it  is  a  Baptist 
Church  that  has  figured  in  my  life  during  these  last  six 
months.  Therefore  I  confine  the  narrative  to  her. 

In  bringing  the  charge  of  extortion,  believe  me  I 
am.  speaking  neither  in  malice  nor  vituperation.  The 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  125 

Baptists  themselves  admit  the  charge.  Yes,  they  take 
glory  in  it.  Extortion  means,  squeezing  all  you  can  out 
of  the  other  fellow.  Go  to  any  business  man  who  is  a 
Baptist,  and  he  will  plead  to  the  indictment.  "  Most  as- 
suredly I  get  all  I  can,"  he  will  tell  you.  "  Do  you  think 
I'm  in  business  for  my  health?  I  buy  in  the  cheapest  mar- 
ket, and  sell  in  the  dearest.  If  I  didn't  I'd  be  in  the  re- 
ceiver's hands  quick.  Business  is  so  organized  that  one 
is  obliged  to  be  an  extortioner.  It's  a  game  of  dog  eat 
dog.  Naturally  I  choose  to  be  the  eater  rather  than  the 
eaten.  Nothing  illegal  about  it.  It  is  quite  within  the 
bounds  of  statutory  procedure.  To  overreach,  is  com- 
mercialism's a  b  c,  and  x  y  z.  Yes,  I'm  an  extortioner." 

This  is  the  business  code  taught  by  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Baptist  Church.  Successful  extortion  is  the  type  of  con- 
duct she  delights  to  honor.  The  Standard  Oil  magnate 
is  a  case  in  point.  By  squeezing  every  cent  he  could  out 
of  the  other  fellow  —  that  is,  by  extortion  —  he  has 
amassed  the  most  far-extending  private  fortune  known  to 
history.  And  he  is  also  clothed  by  his  Church  with  every 
preferment  in  its  power  to  bestow.  His  membership  on 
their  roll  is  celebrated  with  anthems  of  joy.  Not  a  post 
of  honor  in  that  organization  but  would  be  conferred  upon 
him  with  bell-ringings  of  delight.  The  Fifth  Avenue 
Church  has  given  to  extortionate  riches  a  clean  bill  of 
health.  Yes,  has  enhaloed  it  with  a  radiance  from  the 
heaven  of  the  highest;  consecrating  the  code  with  sanctions 
the  most  holy  within  the  mind  of  man  to  conceive  or  within 
the  heart  of  man  to  cherish. 

I  would  not  that  there  should  seem  to  attach  to  my 
tones  any  suggestion  of  bitterness.  Therefore  I  make 
haste  to  soften  the  guilt.  It  is  only  within  recent  date 
that  extortion  has  come  to  light  as  one  of  the  cardinal 
wickednesses  forbidden  by  the  Bible.  Before  the  era  of 
modern  scholarship  religion,  even  the  religion  of  Prot- 
estantism was  an  affair  of  fog  and  unrealism.  The  Bible, 
read  with  uncritical  gaze,  was  deemed  a  book  of  conso- 


126  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

lation;  a  means  rather  of  emotional  detachment  from  the 
scenes  of  time  and  space,  than  of  civic  duty  and  austere 
moral  imperative. 

It  is  scientific  scholarship  that  is  disclosing  the  indus- 
trial note  sounding  through  every  page  of  the  scripture 
record.  Thanks  to  scholarly  research,  we  now  know  that 
the  bible  is  not  primarily  a  book  of  religion.  It  is  pri- 
marily a  book  of  economics.  Or,  more  correctly,  the  two 
are  fused  into  an  organic  blend,  so  that  the  religion  of  the 
bible  mobilized  its  energies  unto  economic  tasks ;  and  eco- 
nomics drew  its  inspirations  from  the  vital  breath  of  re- 
ligion. 

Jesus,  we  now  know,  was  a  workingman.  His  spiritual- 
ity was  inseparably  interwoven  with  the  carpenter's  bench 
where  he  spent  his  young  manhood.  A  toiler,  and  of  a 
nation  of  toilers,  the  life  industrial  was  woven  into  the 
bone  and  brain  of  him.  His  thought  apparatus  was  de- 
termined on  the  side  of  the  working  poor  and  against  the 
exploiting  rich.  His  life  coincided  with  the  formative  era 
of  the  Roman  Empire.  That  empire  was  a  coalition  of 
the  master-class  in  all  of  the  countries  against  the  working- 
class  in  all  of  the  countries.  The  extension  of  that  em- 
pire to  Palestine  menaced  him  and  his  fellow  toilers  with 
slave  status.  Long  he  endured  the  threat  and  the  increas- 
ing degradation.  Then  his  forbearance  came  to  an  end. 
He  laid  aside  his  carpenter's  tools,  surrounded  himself 
with  twelve  other  workingmen,  and  stepped1  forward  into 
a  campaign  of  agitation  the  equal  of  which  for  popular 
arousement  has  nowhere  else  been  marked  down  in  his- 
tory. "  The  common  people,"  we  are  definitely  informed, 
"  heard  him  gladly."  So  gladly,  in  truth,  that  the  wrath 
of  the  privileged  orders  swiftly  flamed  against  him.  From 
Galilee  to  Golgotha  they  hounded  him.  When  finally  they 
had  him  in  Pilate's  court,  the  indictment  drawn  against 
him  was,  "  he  stirreth  up  the  people."  Nor  did  he  at- 
tempt to  deny  it.  Amply  his  guilt  was  established.  He 
was  convicted  as  an  inciter  of  the  populace.  He  met  an 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  127 

agitator's  death. 

"  The  most  inHammatory  book  ever  written,"  exclaimed 
James  Russell  Lowell  of  the  bible.  And  exact  scholar- 
ship is  confirming  the  pronouncement.  I  have  some  ac- 
quaintance with  the  writings  of  such  men  as  Karl  Marx, 
Ferdinand  Lassalle,  Mazzini,  Proudhon,  and  Henry 
George.  Yet  I  say  unto  you,  never  in  any  of  them  have 
I  found  so  vehement  an  indignation  against  swollen  for- 
tunes, and  so  invariable  a  class-conscious  fellowship  with 
the  toiling  poor,  as  in  the  recorded  utterances  of  Jesus  the 
carpenter  of  Nazareth. 

But  these  researches  of  scholarship  have  not  as  yet 
reached  Churches  of  the  old  school.  So  that  they  with 
entire  innocence  are  teaching  an  outworn  ethics  in  a  day 
of  modern  illumination.  Here  is  one  of  the  tragedies  of 
our  time.  The  age  demands  a  social  morality.  But  the 
Churches  are  hammering  along  with  the  old  private  moral- 
ity. So  that  we  see  men  who  are  personal  saints  and  pub- 
lic sinners.  Thereby  religion  is  made  a  laughing-stock; 
and  the  whole  idea  of  a  spiritual  life  is  brought  under 
condemnation. 

In  these  circumstances,  we  of  the  Church  of  the  Social 
Revolution  sought  to  extend  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist 
Church  the  light  of  modern  biblical  scholarship,  in  con- 
nection with  the  social  crisis  that  is  gathering  its  menace 
so  portentously  to-day.  In  a  letter  to  its  pastor  I  an- 
nounced our  visit,  to  invite  their  congregation  to  a  joint 
conference  with  ours,  at  some  time  and  place  to  be  mu- 
tually agreed  upon. 

Dr.  Woelfkin  states  that,  for  some  mysterious  reason, 
this  special  delivery  letter  was  delayed  nearly  two  days, 
so  that  it  reached  him  only  a  few  minutes  before  the  morn- 
ing service,  and  too  late  for  him  to  read.  An  intimation, 
—  is  it  not?  —  that  if  he  had  received  it  and  thus  had 
known  of  the  friendliness  of  our  intentions,  a  different 
sort  of  reception  would  have  been  ours.  In  which  case 
I  ask  him  why,  in  the  police  court  the  following  Tuesday, 


128  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

after  he  had  had  two  additional  days  to  read  and  re-read 
the  letter,  his  attitude  was  still  one  of  hostility?  One 
word  from  him,  or  from  his  Church  board,  would  have 
changed  the  tenor  of  the  entire  court  proceedings.  Not 
only  did  they  refuse  to  utter  that  word,  but  they  assisted 
the  prosecution  and  helped  powerfully  to  convict  me. 

A  question  is  perhaps  in  the  minds  of  some  of  you: 
What  right  had  we  to  pay  that  visit?  Was  it  not  a 
strange  procedure;  illegal,  an  act  of  wildness,  savoring 
rather  of  barbarism  than  of  the  pleasant  usages  of  culti- 
vated society? 

My  friends,  when  I  recall  the  circumstances  amid  which 
our  visit  was  paid,  that  methodical  massacre  at  Ludlow, 
I  marvel  at  the  restraint  we  showed  on  the  occasion  of  our 
visit  to  that  church.  In  Colorado,  one  hundred  and  forty- 
seven  of  our  fellow  members  of  the  disinherited  class  lay 
dead.  Life  was  as  dear  to  them  as  to  any.  They  in- 
cluded men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  and  babes.  I  have 
received  from  there  the  picture  of  a  rag  doll  of  one  of  the 
girl  victims,  that  had  come  out  of  the  inferno  of  fire  well 
enough  preserved  to  be  photographed.  They  were  fel- 
low humans,  those  people  that  were  slain.  As  you  and  I, 
so  they  had  their  hopes,  their  day-dreamings,  their  thirst 
for  a  home  and  for  happiness  and  for  love.  In  the  vigor 
of  health,  they  planned  their  days;  they  looked  forward 
into  the  coming  years  with  expectation.  Then  the  blow 
descended.  Upon  their  camp  the  hired  assassins  of  the 
Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company  fell.  The  torch  was 
applied.  The  report  of  guns  rang  out.  And  when  the 
smoke  cleared,  there  the  bodies  lay;  among  them  women 
holding  infants  in  arms  that,  mother-fashion,  had  sought 
to  defend  them  first  of  all.  Meanwhile  the  instigator  of  it 
was  safe  in  his  palace  here  on  the  Pocantico  Hills,  amid 
a  lavishment  of  wealth  huge  beyond  estimation.  And  his 
Fifth  Avenue  Church  was  assembling  at  stated  intervals 
in  the  name  of  the  crucified  Carpenter,  to  chant  the  praises 
of  the  rich  and  to  inculcate  upon  the  poor  a  proper  do- 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  129 

cility  of  subordination. 

Wildness  on  our  part,  that  visit  of  ours  to  the  Church 
that  had  nurtured  him  into  this  grotesque  and  hellish 
code?  I  say  unto  you,  as  over  against  that  Ludlow  busi- 
ness, our  deed  was  of  lamblike  sweetness  and  moderation. 
Not  the  wildness  of  it,  but  the  mildness  of  it,  excites  my 
astonishment.  Had  we  gone  and  stormed  that  church 
level  with  the  ground  so  as  to  drive  a  plowshare  through 
the  ruins,  it  would  have  been  a  tame  affair  in  comparison 
with  Ludlow.  For  how  should  a  few  stones  be  held  in 
the  same  reckoning  with  living,  sentient  beings  in  Colo- 
rado dashed  to  death? 

No,  my  brother,  tax  us  not  with  exaggeration  in  our 
deed.  If  you  chide  us  at  all,  chide  rather  the  too,  too 
gentle  procedure  in  the  face  of  a  massacre  that  called 
to  highest  heaven  for  protest.  We  to  hide  our  heads ! 
Let  those  the  rather  hide  their  heads  who  lived  contempo- 
rary to  such  a  happening,  and  uttered  no  syllable  of  re- 
monstrance. And  if  any  of  you  were  in  that  number, 
this  night  pray  the  piteous  Heart-of-God  to  forgive  you 
for  being  a  coward  and  a  nonentity  and  a  blank ;  and  to 
make  you  from  this  time  forth  a  figure  that  shall  count 
in  your  day  upon  earth. 

I  referred  a  moment  ago  to  the  Tarrytown  magnate 
as  the  instigator  of  the  Ludlow  slaughter.  Possibly  that 
provoked  a  mood  of  query  in  some  of  you.  This  man,  you 
say,  was  two  thousand  miles  from  the  scene.  His  prop- 
erty in  Colorado  was  managed  by  agents  on  the  spot. 
These,  and  not  he,  hired  the  gunmen  and  are  chargeable 
for  the  tragedy. 

My  friends,  if  you  say  that  you  know  not  social  ethics. 
He  who  receives  the  profits  of  a  business,  is  answerable  for 
the  methods  employed  in  running  that  business.  And 
now  we  are  cutting  close  to  the  heart  of  the  economic 
issue  of  these  times.  Great  wealth  means  absentee  own- 
ership. Here  is  the  boundary  line  between  a  proper  and 
an  improper  fortune.  Wealth  becomes  swollen  wealth, 


130  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

when  the  owner  of  it  is  no  longer  able  personally  to  super- 
intend and  administer  it.  When  a  man  no  longer  can 
know  each  of  his  workmen  by  name,  with  the  wife  and 
children  of  each,  he  has  too  many  workmen.  Absentee 
ownership,  always  and  everywhere,  is  inhuman  ownership. 
Such  wealth  becomes  terribly  depersonalized;  a  machine 
for  grinding  out  profits.  There  are  no  human  sympathies 
to  temper  it,  no  tenderness  to  soften  the  harshness  of  its 
exactions.  Therefore  it  extorts  with  a  perfect  extortion. 

There  is  nothing  so  merciless  under  the  stars  of  heaven, 
as  a  property  administered  by  agents.  The  owner  is  at 
a  remove.  He  sees  not  the  cruelties  that  are  enacted. 
And  the  agent  is  but  a  hired  man.  Where  then  shall  be 
found  chords  of  sensibility  to  feel  the  tragedy ;  or  a  voice 
to  uplift,  and  stay  the  devastation  ?  A  popular  song  tells 
of  a  lonely  girl :  she  lived  in  the  city  that  is  without  pity ; 
the  city  that  has  no  heart.  But  more  pitiless  than  an 
alien  city,  is  absentee  wealth.  It  has  a  gigantic  brain, 
but  no  feelings.  Which  is  exactly  the  definition  of  a 
monster. 

The  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company  is  a  pat  illustra- 
tion. I  am  told  that  the  owner  in  Tarrytown  is  a  man  of 
quick  and  tender  heart.  The  superintendent  in  Colorado 
is  also,  most  like,  a  man  of  family,  and  with  natural  hu- 
man sympathies.  But  this  finer  and  human  side  of  neither 
of  them  was  permitted  to  be  operative. 

Says  the  owner  to  the  superintendent,  "  I  have  pro- 
moted you  to  this  coveted  post.  Now  it  is  up  to  you  to 
make  good.  The  superintendent  before  you  jacked  the 
dividend  up  from  4%  to  6  per  cent.  See  if  you  can  do  as 
well." 

"  Will  do  my  best,"  replies  the  superintendent.  "  I  '11 
keep  an  eye  on  the  dividend;  be  sure  of  that.  Of  course 
there  is  —  er  —  the  workmen  and  their  families.  Just 
what  procedure  do  you  —  er  —  think  — " 

"  What  procedure?  "  exclaims  the  owner.  "  Adopt  the 
Christian  procedure.  I've  got  a  heart,  I  have.  Be  good 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  131 

to  the  workmen." 

"  Er  —  even  at  the  expense  of  —  er  —  lowering  the 
dividends,  sir?  " 

"  Now,  see  here,  Mr.  Superintendent,  I've  appointed 
you  to  the  management  of  an  industrial  plant,  not  to  the 
head  of  a  charity.  I  keep  my  business  and  my  philan- 
thropy distinctly  separate.  Business  means  dividends." 

"  And  the  heads  of  families?  " 

"  Give  them  all  you  can.  But  don't  reduce  the  divi- 
dend." 

"The  women?" 

"  Treat  the  women  well.  But  don't  reduce  the  divi- 
dend." 

"The  boys  and  girls?" 

"  Be  tender  towards  them.  But  don't  reduce  the 
dividend." 

The  Dividend  is  the  one  deity  in  the  business  kingdom. 
To  that,  every  eye  looks  up,  in  all  homage,  all  worship. 
That  superintendent  in  Ludlow  knew  that  a  cut  in  the  rate 
of  the  dividend  would  cost  him  his  job.  Therefore  he 
turned  heaven  and  hell  to  maintain  it.  The  dividend  de- 
manded that  he  debauch  politics.  Therefore  he  debauched 
the  politics  of  the  entire  State  of  Colorado.  The  dividend 
demanded  that  he  employ  children  of  school  age.  So  he 
cast  schoolhouses  on  the  scrap  heap.  It  demanded  finally 
that  he  commit  wholesale  murder.  Here  likewise  he  hesi- 
tated not  a  moment.  Maintain  the  dividend  even  at  the 
price  of  massacre,  was  the  order  that  came,  directly  or 
indirectly,  from  Tarrytown.  He  did  as  he  was  told.  He 
multiplied  murder  147  times.  Thus  he  kept  his  job.  Po- 
cantico  Hills  got  its  dividends.  And  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Church,  its  pew  rent  and  missionary  contribution. 

But,  they  tell  us,  there  wasn't  any  provision  in  law  for 
your  visit  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Church.  Well,  was  there 
any  provision  in  law  for  the  slaughter  of  those  147  people 
in  Ludlow?  An  unprecedented  situation  demanded  of  us 
unprecedented  measures.  And  it  is  the  lawlessness  of 


132  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

wealth,  continued  now  through  a  course  of  years,  that  has 
brought  to  pass  this  unprecedented  state  of  affairs.  It  is 
a  proverb,  "  Law  is  a  spider's  web  that  catches  the  little 
flies,  and  lets  the  bumblebee  break  through."  Money  has 
debased  the  electorate,  corrupted  our  legislatures,  bedev- 
illed our  courts,  besmirched  our  municipalities,  polluted 
all  the  springs  of  our  civic  life. 

"  Law  and  order  "  is  their  cry  to  us  and  their  everlast- 
ing exhortation.  Yes  ?  Harry  Thaw's  escape  from  Mat- 
teawan,  and  subsequent  residence  amid  luxury  in  New 
Hampshire  —  was  it  according  to  law  and  order?  The 
pardon  of  Morse  from  the  Federal  prison  in  Atlanta,  per- 
mitting him  to  regain  his  forfeited  millions  —  according 
to  law  and  order?  The  lobby  at  Washington  that  so 
powerfully  dictates  some  desired  decree  of  Congress  — 
according  to  law  and  order?  The  State  government  in 
Colorado,  is  it  at  the  present  hour  according  to  law  and 
order;  or  has  it  been  for  one  moment  since  the  Colorado 
Fuel  and  Iron  Company  engaged  in  politics?  The  motor 
rides  of  a  millionaire  convict  in  Sing  Sing  —  according  to 
law  and  order?  Law  and  order,  my  friends,  has  come  to 
be  largely  a  formula  for  excusing  the  rich  and  powerful, 
and  for  accusing  the  lowly. 

But  I  wish  to  take  higher  ground  than  this,  in  justify- 
ing the  deed  where  I,  and  the  Church  of  which  I  am  leader, 
have  been  brought  in  question.  Statutory  enactment  is 
not  for  ethics  the  court  of  last  appeal.  Time  was,  when 
chattel  slavery  stood  legislated  into  our  federal  constitu- 
tion. Against  it,  the  doings  of  Lovejoy  and  Garrison  and 
Phillips  were  avowedly  illegal.  But  to-day  those  men  are 
glorified.  John  Brown's  deed  at  Harper's  Ferry  was 
hardly  a  contribution  to  the  chronicles  of  legality.  But, 
though  his  body  lies  a-moldering  in  the  ground,  his  soul 
goes  marching  on.  Jesus  when  he  entered  the  Jerusalem 
temple  and  with  whips  drove  out  the  gang  of  extortioners 
there  confederated,  was  a  law  breaker.  There  are  times 
when,  to  break  the  law,  or  rather,  to  go  beyond  the  law,  is 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  133 

man's  divinest  duty. 

By  temperament  I  am  disposed  to  the  pathways  of  or- 
derly procedure.  And  if  I  seem  to  speak  slightingly  of 
man-made  statutes,  it  is  out  of  reverence  to  heaven-made 
statutes  which  man-made  laws  were  stupidly  ignoring  or 
openly  contradicting.  One  of  these  laws  engraved  on  the 
statute  books  eternal,  is  the  law  of  truth.  Which  law  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Church  in  question  was  grievously  violating. 
And  is.  It  teaches  the  righteousness  of  swollen  fortunes, 
and  affects  to  base  that  teaching  on  the  life  and  words  of 
the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.  A  more  perfect  falsification 
was  never  fabricated  to  mislead  the  children  of  men. 

"  Once  upon  a  time,"  said  that  Carpenter,  "  there  was 
a  certain  rich  man  that  was  clothed  in  purple  and  fine 
linen,  and  fared  sumptuously  every  day.  And  a  certain 
beggar  named  Lazarus  was  laid  at  his  gate  full  of  sores, 
and  desiring  to  be  fed  with  the  crumbs  which  fell  from  the 
rich  man's  table.  Moreover,  the  dogs  came  and  licked  his 
sores.  Now  it  came  to  pass  that  the  beggar  died  and  was 
carried  by  the  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom.  The  rich 
man  also  died  —  and  was  buried.  And  in  hell  he  lifted  up 
his  eyes,  being  in  torments,  and  seeth  Abraham  afar  off, 
and  Lazarus  in  his  bosom.  And  he  cried  and  said, 
'  Father  Abraham,  I  pray  thee  have  mercy  on  me,  and 
send  Lazarus  that  he  may  dip  the  tip  of  his  finger  in  water 
and  cool  my  tongue.  For  I  am  tormented  in  this  flame.' 
But  Abraham  said,  '  Son,  between  us  and  you  is  a  great 
gulf  fixed.'  " 

Jesus,  you  will  take  note,  does  not  send  him  to  hell  be- 
cause he  was  an  immoral  rich  man,  an  uncharitable  rich 
man,  or  an  illegal  rich  man.  To  the  contrary,  all  the 
intimations  in  the  parable  portray  him  as  a  good  rich 
man,  more  than  commonly  high-minded  and  tender  of  sensi- 
bility. None  the  less,  for  him  the  abode  of  the  damned 
swings  wide  its  gate.  And  all  prayers,  all  supplications 
to  the  heart  of  heaven,  were  unavailing  to  mitigate  the 
dread  sentence  so  much  as  by  one  cooling  drop  of  water. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Do  you  recall  the  parable  of  that  other  rich  man?  he 
who  gave  himself  up  to  the  lust  of  acquisition,  joining 
field  to  field  and  property  to  property  until  he  had  not 
where  to  bestow  his  goods.  "  This  will  I  do,"  said  he ;  "  I 
will  pull  down  my  barns  and  build  greater ;  and  there  will 
I  bestow  all  my  fruits  and  my  goods.  And  I  will  say  to 
my  soul,  *  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many 
years ;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be  merry.' '  Well, 
that  same  night  he  met  his  death.  And  do  you  know  to 
what  kind  of  a  death  Jesus  surrendered  him?  Both  the 
accepted  and  the  revised  versions  purposely  soften  it.  The 
real  translation  is,  "  Thou  fool,  this  night  they  are  de- 
manding thy  life  of  thee."  In  other  words,  he  was  put  to 
death  by  an  uprising  of  the  populace. 

Nor  are  these  exceptional  or  isolated  passages.  The 
speech  of  the  Carpenter  is  pregnant  with  the  economic 
upheaval  of  the  time.  This  Jesus,  whose  birthday  all 
Christendom  will  in  a  few  weeks  celebrate,  who  has  redated 
the  calendar  and  whose  personality  is  the  cornerstone  of 
cathedrals  and  churches  girdling  the  globe,  was  the  most 
uncompromising  foe  of  private  riches  that  ever  trod  this 
planet.  Wheresoever  he  passed,  an  uprising  of  the  multi- 
tude was  not  long  in  following.  He  touched  the  times  to 
revolutionary  hope  and  high  expectancy.  For  the  toiler 
he  had  beatitudes.  But  to  the  privileged  classes  living 
at  ease  on  the  backs  of  the  poor,  he  portioned  out  earth- 
quake and  eclipse  in  this  world,  arid  a  gehenna  of  destruc- 
tion in  the  world  to  come. 

To  take  the  name  of  such  a  one,  and  pervert  it  to  a 
glorification  of  the  money  caste,  is  the  ungodliest,  the  in- 
decentest  piece  of  business  the  sun  has  looked  down  upon 
in  many  a  year.  Yet  that  is  what  our  Fifth  Avenue 
Church  has  done.  It  has  put  its  O.  K.,  its  official  im- 
primatur, on  the  perpetrator  of  the  Ludlow  slaughter. 
And  then  has  the  effrontery  to  engrave  on  its  front,  in 
letters  sunk  into  the  solid  stone,  "  We  Preach  Christ  Cruci- 
fied." It's  a  lie.  And  if  they  will  not  change  it,  some- 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  135 

body  will  have  to  change  it  for  them.  "  We  Preach  Christ 
Falsified,"  is  what  it  will  have  to  be  altered  into. 

No  right  to  carry  the  light  of  truth  to  that  Church! 
If  by  that  they  mean  that  there  is  no  statutory  provision 
for  such  a  deed,  or  that  it  is  contrary  to  custom,  they  per- 
haps are  right.  But  the  statute  book  does  not  contain 
the  whole  duty  of  man.  And  as  to  the  unusual  and  dis- 
turbing quality  in  our  deed,  I  say  unto  you,  This  age 
needs  to  be  disturbed.  To  stir  up  this  dull  and  soggy 
generation,  is  quite  the  most  salutary  deed  that  could  be 
wrought.  And  if  thus  to  awaken  a  world  sunk  in  com- 
fortable slumber,  carries  with  it  a  jail  sentence,  we  will 
take  the  consequences.  When  human  law  clashes  with 
divine  law,  prison  becomes  a  house  of  prayer,  and  they 
alone  are  truly  free,  who  are  fast  behind  the  bars. 

But  wait  a  moment.  Our  deed  was  outside  the  law. 
But  was  it  contrary  to  the  law?  I  beg  to  remind  you 
that  churches  are  a  semi-public  institution.  Not  fully 
public,  as  is  a  park  or  a  highway.  Nor  yet  fully  private, 
as  is  a  residence  or  a  clubhouse.  In  our  jurisprudence 
they  occupy  a  status  between.  And  for  this  reason: 
churches  are  exempt  from  taxation.  Which  means,  to 
that  extent  they  are  subsidized  by  society.  Every  one 
of  us  is  a  contributor. 

Now  taxation  without  representation  is  inimical  to  the 
spirit  and  history  of  American  institutions.  To  be  sure, 
the  point  is  too  nebulous  a  one  to  establish  for  our  deed  a 
legality  beyond  all  peradventure.  But  I  do  say  that  it 
makes  it  a  debatable  issue,  a  case  distinctly  with  two  sides. 
The  public,  contributing  of  its  taxes  to  the  maintenance 
of  a  church,  acquires  thereby  an  equity  in  that  church. 
So  that  our  visit,  whatever  else  it  may  have  been,  was  not 
an  intrusion.  And  the  judges  who  hilariously  refused  to 
listen  to  our  defense  and  who  bundled  me  off  to  prison 
without  any  privilege  of  appeal  and  practically  without 
a  hearing,  added  no  luster  to  the  New  York  courts  nor  re- 
deemed the  bench  from  the  suspicion  of  subserviency  to 


136  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

wealth,  which  is  creeping  into  many  minds  to-day. 

But,  legally  or  illegally,  the  Christian  Church  has  got 
to  be  shamed  out  of  its  attitude  of  a  coward  and  skulker 
on  these  economic  issues.  It  must  be  dragged  into  the 
open.  Some  weeks  ago,  one  of  the  Socialist  Party  leaders 
in  New  York  wrote  to  Dr.  Woelfkin,  offering  to  arrange 
a  public  debate  between  him  and  me  on  the  question,  "  Did 
Jesus  Teach  the  Immorality  of  Being  Rich?  "  That  min- 
ister wrote  back  refusing,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  by 
no  means  a  defender  of  riches ;  in  fact,  was  not  sure  of  his 
mind  on  this  matter.  But  that  was  not  the  question. 
The  subject  proposed  was  not  as  to  Dr.  Woelfkin's  atti- 
tude towards  wealth,  but  as  to  the  attitude  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  toward  wealth  —  a  historical  question  purely, 
and  verifiable  from  the  records.  What  pitiable,  pitiable 
spirit  of  evasion !  And  from  Protestantism,  which  once 
stood  forth  the  champion  of  truth  to  all  the  world,  and 
challenged  the  devil  to  his  face. 

Strangely  enough,  the  gentleness  of  tone  in  the  letter 
sent  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Church  has  been  made  the  ground 
of  an  additional  accusation  against  me  —  insincerity. 

"  Bouck  White  did  not  mean  a  word  of  his  letter,"  ex- 
claim a  chorus  of  carping  critics.  My  friends,  I  ask 
you  to  have  faith  enough  in  me  to  believe  that  I  both  am 
capable  of  sincerity,  and  that  I  displayed  the  trait  on  that 
occasion.  There  is  a  group  of  agitators  who  lay  the  eco- 
nomic sinnings  of  our  day  at  the  door  of  rich  men  in- 
dividually. But  we  of  the  Socialist  creed  hold  differently. 
All  the  rich  men  in  the  world  could  renounce  their  incomes 
to-morrow;  the  game  would  be  taken  up  by  others,  and 
the  extortion  go  on.  Not  individuals,  but  the  system,  is 
at  fault.  We  must  lay  the  ax  at  the  root  of  the  poison 
tree.  To  lop  off  branches  here  and  there  is  futile. 
Therefore  in  our  efforts  to  find  a  remedy  for  the  sick- 
ness of  society  as  seen  in  the  Ludlow  breaking  out,  we 
went  beneath  all  personalities,  all  surface  cures,  to  bed- 
rock, namely,  the  false  religion  and  ethics,  from  which  all 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  137 

other  falsenesses  flow. 

Consider  the  situation:  Agitators  were  holding  the 
Standard  Oil  magnate  individually  responsible  for  the  Lud- 
low  affair.  There  was  an  invasion  of  the  privacy  of  his 
home.  There  were  threats  against  his  life ;  so  that  he  was 
a  prisoner  in  his  own  house,  venturing  forth  only  in  a  fast 
automobile,  and  with  curtains  drawn.  Efforts  were  being 
made  also  to  organize  a  committee  in  New  York  to  pur- 
chase rifles  and  ship  them  to  the  miners  in  Colorado,  to 
foment  a  civil  war.  In  such  a  juncture,  we  wrote  to  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Church,  saying:  "  Let  us  get  together,  and 
lift  this  entire  question  out  of  the  realm  of  personalities 
into  the  realm  of  eternal  principles,  whence  alone  deliver- 
ance can  flow."  Their  reply  was  to  clap  me  into  prison. 

Disorderly  ?  I  say  unto  you,  that  Fifth  Avenue  Church 
was  the  true  disorderly  one.  And  we  were  the  people  of 
orderliness  and  elevated  decorum.  I  do  not  blame  the 
rich  for  their  covetousness.  I  blame  the  Church  that  has 
taught  them  the  falsified  gospel  that  covetousness  is  ethi- 
cal and  christianly.  There  is  going  to  be  more  hope  for 
John  D.  Rockefeller  at  Judgment  Day  than  for  Cornelius 
Woelfkin.  Rockefeller  is  an  offender  against  humanity. 
But  he  doesn't  know  it.  Jesus  in  his  day  sentenced  rich 
men  to  hell  without  reprieve.  That  was  because  in  that 
era  the  commandment  to  a  life  of  democracy  and  human 
fellowship  was  clear.  So  that  the  rich  in  that  day  sinned 
against  noonday  light.  But  to-day  the  plain  mandates 
of  the  bible  against  swollen  fortunes  have  been  covered 
up  and  softened  down  and  explained  away  by  a  convenient 
and  decorous  clergy.  So  that  right  and  wrong  have  been 
made  veritably  to  change  places. 

Rockefeller  is  a  moral  idiot.  He  is  not  accountable 
for  his  acts.  And  therefore  will  be  tenderly  dealt  with 
when  he  comes  to  his  final  account.  I  mean  that  in  all 
kindness.  Through  the  perverted  religious  teachings  in 
which  he  has  been  immersed  since  boyhood,  he  is  stone 
blind  to  the  price  in  the  misery  of  multitudes,  that  has 


138  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

been  paid  for  his  wealth.  Ruthless  as  Attila  or  a  Genghis 
Khan,  he  has  trampled  upon  others,  leaving  behind  at 
every  step  a  trail  of  bankrupts.  As  Indians  used  to  deco- 
rate their  wigwams  with  the  skulls  of  the  vanquished,  so  he 
could  paper  all  the  walls  of  his  house  at  Tarrytown  with 
the  bankruptcy  proceedings  of  his  victims.  But  he  doesn't 
perceive  it.  He  and  his  master-class  group,  with  their 
commercial  warfarings, —  avarice  internationalized,  cov- 
etousness  magnified  to  a  cosmic  diameter  —  have  let  loose 
the  thunderclouds  that  now  are  clashing  in  Europe.  And 
thereupon,  with  entire  innocency,  an  absence  of  the  sense  of 
humor,  he  sends  over  shiploads  of  food  for  the  districts 
ravaged  by  the  war.  Millions  for  philanthropy,  but  not 
a  cent  for  justice.  And  why,  this  spectacle  so  sublimely 
ridiculous?  It  is  because  the  Christianity  that  has  nur- 
tured him  has  made  of  him,  as  to  his  moral  judgments,  an 
imbecile.  For  it  has  preached  almsgiving  instead  of 
equity.  Upon  her,  therefore,  and  not  upon  him,  must  fall 
the  condemnation. 


This,  my  friends,  is  the  history  of  that  Fifth  Avenue 
Church  affair,  told  in  all  candor,  all  truth.  What  of  the 
future?  The  newspapers  at  the  time  of  my  conviction 
last  spring  prophesied  that  it  would  work  in  me  a  whole- 
some amendment;  and  that  I  would  come  back,  when  the 
sentence  had  expired,  to  be  a  chastened  and  docile  member 
of  society  thenceforward. 

The  prophecies  were  outside  the  facts.  They  thought 
that  half  a  year  in  prison  would  take  the  speed  out  of 
me.  It  has  not  taken  the  speed  out  of  me.  Six  months 
of  fettered  inactivity  detaches  a  prisoner  as  in  a  sort  of 
watchtower,  from  which  he  can  observe  the  world's  drift 
and  trend  with  a  truer  perspective  than  those  who  are  in 
the  thick  of  it.  Twenty-seven  weeks  spent  in  that  watch- 
tower  have  persuaded  me,  with  a  more  grounded  certitude 
than  ever  in  the  past,  that  this  present  order  of  society  is 
doomed.  It  makes  not  for  peace  but  for  war.  Its  seed 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  139 

and  root  is  the  avaricious  instinct,  which  instinct  makes 
for  conflict  inevitable.  Given  that  root,  the  cataclysm 
which  is  now  destroying  Europe  is  the  natural  growth  and 
fruitage.  Competition,  the  cornerstone;  world  war,  the 
culmination.  Capitalism's  back  is  broken.  Social  sur- 
gery may  devise  some  kind  of  a  splint  to  keep  the  patient 
going  for  a  while.  But  it  will  be  on  a  descending  path- 
way. Its  vitality  will  be  charted  on  a  falling  curve, 
The  spinal  column  is  fractured. 

When  a  world  is  hell-bent,  Revolution,  that  is  to  say,  a 
right-about-face,  is  the  only  thing  that  can  save  it.  Ac- 
cordingly, to  that  holy  task  of  social  overturn,  I  dedicate 
my  life.  Nor  in  this  stand  I  solitary.  Protestantism  is 
not  wholly  given  over  into  the  money  power.  That  group 
of  ministers  who  dared  to  defend  me  when  I  was  in  felon 
stripes,  are  a  saving  remnant  about  which  a  new  spiritual 
formation  shall  gather.  We  have,  furthermore,  in  a  con- 
gressman-elect on  this  platform  to-night,  the  evidence  of 
a  new  type  in  America's  political  life,  that  shall  be  an  in- 
calculable security  in  the  troubled  times  that  are  ahead. 
Civilization  is  in  the  melting  pot.  The  hour  has  struck  to 
recast  mankind  into  a  nobler  mold.  "  I  enlist  *  under  the 
Lord  of  the  blood-red  banner,  to  bring  to  an  end  a  scheme 
of  things  that  has  enthroned  Leisure  on  the  back  of  La- 
bor, an  idle  class  sucking  the  substance  of  the  poor.  I 
will  not  be  a  social  climber,  but  will  remain  with  the  work- 
ers in  class  solidarity  till  class  shall  have  been  done  away 
in  fellowship's  glad  dawn.  I  will  seek  recruits  for  the 
Church  of  the  Social  Revolution,  unto  the  overthrow  of 
present-day  society  and  its  rebuilding  into  fellowship. 

*  Covenant  of  the  church. 


RITUAL 
CHURCH  OF  THE  SOCIAL  REVOLUTION 

ORDER  OF  SERVICE 

1.  Song  (People  seated). 

2.  Song  (Seated). 

3.  Leader :     "  To   sing  the  folk  upheaval  and  grow  a 

Socialism  of  the  heart,  we  are  assembled.  Unto  us 
has  been  entrusted  the  high  glad  gospel  of  de- 
mocracy. Therefore  with  joy,  with  beauty,  with 
strong  devotion,  let  all  the  doings  of  this  hour  pro- 
ceed. That  so  the  revolution  may  be  wrought  in 
sweetness  and  in  majesty.  Till  the  Lord-of-the- 
uprising-of-labor  shall  have  been  enthroned  o'er  all 
the  earth,  and  the  people  be  established." 

4.  Song  (Seated). 

5.  The  Covenant  in  unison  (Standing). 

6.  Song  (Seated). 

7.  Notices  (by  the  Leader  and  the  heads  of  committees 

and  departments). 

8.  Treasurer :       "  Church-of-the-Revolution     comrades : 

The  holiest  cause  that  has  come  to  earth  in  eighteen 
hundred  years,  asks  you  for  a  money  offering.  The 
martyrs  that  have  gone  before  prepared  for  this 
day,  by  their  faithfulness  even  unto  impoverish- 
ment and  death.  Let  us  in  this  our  time  give  with 
equal  devotion." 

(Consecration   of   children   to   the   Cause   of   Human 
Freedom.) 

9.  Song  (Standing). 

10.  Address. 

140 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  141 

11.  Invitation  into  the  Fellowship;  and  singing  the  Cove- 

nant. 

12.  Song  (Standing). 

13.  Silence. 

14.  Leader:    "  And  now  may  the  Lord-of-the-uprising-of- 

labor  keep  us  in  the  Fellowship." 

15.  Congregation:     "  Forevermore." 


REVOLUTION  MARRIAGE  RITE 

Church  of  the  Revolution,  Comrades: 

We  are  about  to  consecrate  the  joining  of  two  souls  in 
wedlock.  Marriage  is  a  joyful  event.  It  adds  to  the  man 
and  to  the  woman  fullness  of  living,  and  to  society  the 
blessedness  of  an  unending  perpetuity.  It  is  not  good  for 
man  to  be  alone.  It  is  not  good  for  woman  to  be  alone. 
Each  has  need  of  the  other.  Each  rounds  out  the  other. 
Many  lives  have  come  to  a  day  of  downfall,  because  they 
attempted  to  go  solitary  through  the  wilderness  of  this 
world,  and  in  loneliness  wandered  astray.  By  cosmic  de- 
cree, man  and  woman  are  fractional  parts  of  a  human 
being.  In  each  other  they  find  their  completeness. 
Therefore  we  should  glorify  their  union.  We  should  lift 
it  into  the  light  of  recognition;  and  rejoice  on  an  occasion 
like  the  present,  with  a  public  rejoicing.  The  ongoings 
of  life  and  of  civil  society  shall  not  fail,  so  long  as  wed- 
ding bells  shall  ring  and  man  and  woman  join  themselves 
in  splendid  dedication. 

This  occasion,  while  it  has  its  joyous  side,  must  also  not 
be  divested  of  the  solemnity  that  befits  it.  The  uniting 
of  two  lives  is  a  matter  in  which  not  alone  the  partners  are 
interested,  but  is  an  event  likewise  in  which  society  is  vitally 
concerned.  Therefore,  they  who  have  a  sense  of  civic  re- 
sponsibility will  neither  lightly  renounce  marriage  nor 
lightly  enter  marriage.  Frivolously  to  refuse  it,  frivo- 
lously to  undertake  it,  is  equally  a  sorrow  to  the  race. 
Therefore  abating  no  part  of  the  joyousness  of  this  event, 
we  must  in  like  measure  deepen  our  thoughts  to  the  pro- 
found significance  of  the  deed  we  are  here  enacting. 

To  the  Man  and  to  the  Woman 

You  have  come  to  me  as  the  leader  of  this  Church,  that 
I  may  unite  you  in  matrimony.  It  is  incumbent  upon  me 

142 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  143 

however  in  all  candor  to  inform  you  that  no  word  that  I 
may  speak  or  rite  that  I  personally  can  celebrate,  is  of 
power  to  bring  that  state  of  affairs  to  pass.  Marriage 
is  an  interior  uniting,  or  it  is  not  a  marriage.  A  joining 
of  spirit  to  spirit,  alone  can  make  you  husband  and  wife. 
Because  of  forgetfulness  of  this  fact,  marriages  more  than 
one  have  come  to  disastrous  termination.  The  divorce 
courts  testify  with  pathetic  abundance  that  a  marriage 
which  is  consecrated  only  by  exterior  celebration  and  not 
by  spiritual  union,  is  no  marriage  but  is  a  mockery  and  a 
sorrow.  Where  love  is,  marriage  abides.  Where  love  is 
not,  marriage  is  not.  No  clergyman  has  the  right  to  bind 
a  man  and  a  woman  together  so  long  as  life  shall  last ;  but 
rather,  so  long  as  love  shall  last.  Neither  wedding  day 
solemnities  nor  offices  of  earnest  friends,  nor  all  the  power 
of  Heaven  itself  shall  be  of*  potency  to  keep  together  two 
souls  that  are  not  themselves  resolved  to  be  one.  There- 
fore if  the  marriage  here  beginning  is  to  be  permanent, 
you  yourselves  must  make  it  permanent.  I  need  not  tell 
you  of  the  tragedy  that  is  inflicted  upon  personal  life  and 
public  well-being,  by  the  sundering  of  homes  and  the  break- 
ing up  of  families.  I  rather  devote  this  moment  to  a  word 
of  caution  and  exhortation.  To  the  end  that  love  may 
last  as  long  as  life  shall  last,  and  marriage  be  coterminous 
with  them  both. 

Happy  marriages  are  a  growth;  and  are  the  result  of 
that  indwelling  affection  which  leads  to  constant  compro- 
mises one  to  the  other,  whereby  with  the  passing  of  the 
years  the  soul  of  the  man  and  the  soul  of  the  woman  ad- 
just themselves  mutually;  like  twin  vines  which  have  en- 
wrapt  each  other  for  so  long  that  now  any  tearing  of  them- 
selves apart  would  be  fatal  to  them  both.  Only  in  this 
will-to-permanency,  can  an  enduring  tie  be  wrought. 
Therefore  I  ask  you  now,  are  you  determined  each  of  you 
to  make  this  marriage  so  far  as  in  your  power  shall  lie,  an 
institution  that  by  its  lastingness  and  wholesomeness  shall 
bless  mankind  long  after  your  day  is  done? 


14*4  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

The  man  and  the  woman  answer  each: 
"  I  am  so  resolved." 

Do  you  cheerfully  undertake  the  duties  that  come  from 
the  uniting  of  two  lives  and  the  setting  up  of  a  home  in 
the  midst  of  society? 

The  man  and  the  woman  each: 
"  I  undertake  those  duties." 

In  sickness  as  well  as  in  health;  in  poverty  as  well  as 
in  plenty ;  in  dark  hours  as  well  as  in  the  day  of  prosperity, 
will  you  cleave  to  one  another  and  by  your  mutual  faith- 
fulness lighten  the  common  sorrow? 

The  man  and  the  woman  each: 

"  I  will." 

[The  leader  places  the  right  hand  of  the  man  in  the  right 
hand  of  the  woman,  and  with  his  left  hand  upon  their 
joined  hands,  says]  : 

With  this  clasp  of  the  hand,  under  the  heaven  of  The 
Highest  and  in  the  presence  of  this  company  of  witnesses, 
I  pronounce  you  husband  and  wife.  From  this  hour  may 
holy  thoughts  attend  you,  and  faithful  friends  enfold  you, 
and  the  Everlasting  Arms  be  round  about  you.  Forever- 
more. 


CONSECRATION  OF  CHILDREN 

Church  of  the  Revolution,  Comrades : 

We  are  about  to  celebrate  the  rite  of  infant  consecra- 
tion. From  immemorial  antiquity,  the  coming  of  a  child 
into  the  world  has  been  made  the  occasion  of  a  stated  and 
sacred  ceremony.  Such  a  celebration  is  eminently  befit- 
ting1. In  the  animal  kingdom  the  coming  of  an  individual 
into  existence,  and  his  passing  out,  receive  no  recognition. 
Man  has  differently  ordained,  and  thereby  has  invested 
human  life  with  dignity.  We  of  the  new  age  and  order 
depart  widely  from  the  old.  But  we  do  not  destroy  the 
old.  Rather,  founding  upon  the  past,  we  carry  the  build- 
ing to  a  nobler  and  more  glorious  height.  The  morbid 
fear  of  the  universe  upon  which  the  ancient  rite  of  baptism 
was  based,  is  forever  passed  away.  But  the  beauty  and 
utility  of  celebrating  the  advent  of  a  new  soul  into  the 
abode  of  the  living,  shall  never  pass  away.  It  is  not  upon 
the  child  but  upon  us,  and  particularly  upon  the  parents, 
that  the  present  service  is  of  value.  I  entreat  you,  there- 
fore, to  give  to  this  rite  your  cooperating  aid,  and  to  the 
child,  from  this  time  forth,  your  neighborly  thought  and 
affection. 

To  the  Parents :  - 

You  have  brought  this  child  for  consecration.  Do  you 
hold  with  us  that  the  present  ordering  of  the  world  is  evil, 
and  needs  to  be  supplanted  by  a  new? 


Parents. 
I  do. 


"  I  do." 

Will  you  strive  by  precept  and  example,  to  rear  up  this 

145 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

child  into  moral  courage,  into  self  mastery,  and  into  de- 
votion to  the  commonwealth? 

Parents. 
"  I  will." 

Leader  (addressing  the  child,  or  children)  :  We  wel- 
come you  into  life.  A  dark  day  is  upon  the  world;  may 
you  be  a  light  in  the  darkness.  A  day  of  bloodshed  is 
upon  the  world;  may  you  be  a  herald  of  peace.  A  day 
of  hate  is  upon  the  world;  may  you  be  a  bringer  of  fel- 
lowship. 

Will  the  congregation  stand;  and  let  us  remain  for  a 
moment  in  silence.  Leader  [placing  both  palms  on  the 
head  of  the  infant]. 

Russell  Palmer,  under  the  heaven  of  the  Highest,  and 
in  the  presence  of  this  company  of  witnesses,  I  dedicate 
you  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom.  From  this  hour  may 
faithful  guardians  instruct  you.  May  Heaven  tenderly 
cherish  you.  And  the  Everlasting  Arms  be  round  about 

FOREVERMORE ! 


REVOLUTION  CATECHISM 

Q.  In  what  sort  of  an  age  are  we  living? 

A.  We  are  living  in  an  age  of  Revolution. 

Q.   What  is  the  nature  of  the  present  Revolution? 

A.  It  is  a  Social  Revolution. 

Q.  How  does  Social  Revolution  differ  from  political 
Revolution? 

A.  Political  revolution  is  confined  within  national  boun- 
daries ;  Social  revolution  disregards  national  boundaries. 

Q.  Is  the  social  revolution  something  tJiat  is  going  to 
come? 

A.  It  is  not  something  that  is  going  to  come;  it  is  al- 
ready here. 

Q.  Are  there  visible  signs  by  which  its  presence  can  be 
detected? 

A.  Social  revolution  has  no  visible  signs.  Unlike  po- 
litical revolution,  it  is  a  combat  of  ideas. 

Q.  How  then  can  we  know  tliat  The  Revolution  is  taking 
place? 

A.  We  know  that  The  Revolution  is  taking  place  be- 
cause of  the  change  in  the  thoughts  and  habits  and  lives  of 
the  people. 

Q.  7*  Social  Revolution  accompanied  by  bloodshed,  as 
political  rerwlution? 

A.  Bloodshed  is  not  an  essential  accompaniment  of  So- 
cial Revolution.  Its  domain  is  the  invisible  realm  of 
thoughts  and  customs  and  institutions. 

Q.  Is  Social  Revolution  ever  accompanied  by  the  taking 
of  life,  or  the  destroying  of  property? 

A.  Social  revolutions  in  the  past  have  been  thus  ac- 
companied. But  these  are  not  necessary  parts  of  social 
revolution. 

Q.   What  is  the  difference  between  social  evolution  and 

social  revolution? 

147 


148  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

A.  Revolution  is  evolution  hurried  up. 

Q.  Are  both  evolution  and  revolution  normal? 

A.  Both  evolution  and  revolution  are  normal,  each  being 
a  part  in  nature's  ongoing. 

,Q.  Why  is  our  time  a  time  of  revolution  and  not  of 
evolution? 

A.  Ours  is  a  time  of  revolution  rather  than  evolution, 
because  of  the  extent  of  the  changes  and  the  rapidity  with 
which  they  are  taking  place. 

Q.   What  is  the  fundamental  fact  of  The  Revolution? 

A.  The  fundamental  fact  of  The  Revolution  is  the 
change  from  a  civilization  of  and  for  the  idle  class,  to  a 
civilization  of  and  for  the  workers. 

Q.   Who  are  the  workers? 

A.  The  workers  are  all  who  do  productive  toil. 

Q.  Does  this  include  brain  workers,  as  well  as  hand 
workers? 

A.  Yes;  brain  workers  are  a  part  of  the  producing 
class,  and  therefore  are  a  part  of  the  working  class. 

Q.   Who  are  not  included? 

A.  The  kept  people  are  not  included ;  by  which  is  meant 
all  able  bodied  people  who  consume  without  producing. 

Q.  Does  this  change  from  a  leisure  class  to  an  industrial 
class  civilization,  cause  many  consequences? 

A.  Yes,  the  revolution  of  our  time  is  causing  an  altera- 
tion in  most  of  the  departments  of  life. 

Q.  What  are  the  departments  of  life  affected  by  the 
revolution? 

A.  Besides  industry,  the  departments  affected  by  the 
revolution  are  the  home,  art,  education,  and  statecraft. 

Q.  What  is  the  revolution  that  is  taking  place  m  the 
home? 

A.  It  is  a  revolution  whereby  the  private  family  is  being 
merged  in  the  human  family. 

Q.  What  is  meant  by  this  merging  of  the  private  family 
into  the  human  -family? 

A.  It  means  that  people  shall  no  longer  think  of  their 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  149 

household  first,  but  shall  think  of  the  human  family  first. 

Q.  Who  are  your  brothers  and  sisters? 

A.  My  brothers  and  sisters  are  all  the  people  of  all  the 
world. 

Q.  Does  this  supremacy  of  the  human  family  do  away 
with  the  need  of  private  families? 

A.  No.  Marriage  and  private  homes  are  necessary; 
but  we  must  no  longer  limit  our  fellowship  to  blood  rela- 
tives. 

Q.  What  does  this  supremacy  of  the  human  family  mean 
as  to  children? 

A.  It  means  that  every  child  which  comes  into  the  world 
has  a  claim  upon  society,  for  its  support,  education  and 
proper  upbringing.  We  are  no  longer  permitted  to  care 
only  for  children  of  our  flesh  and  blood ;  all  children  are 
our  flesh  and  blood. 

Q.  Does  this  conception  of  the  human  family  alter  the 
marriage  relation? 

A.  It  alters  the  marriage  relation  to  this  extent  —  that 
love  and  not  financial  support  is  to  be  henceforth  the  only 
basis  of  union  between  man  and  woman. 

Q.  Does  this  mean  then  that  marriages  other  than  love 
marriages  are  unrighteous? 

A.  It  means  that  marriages  other  than  love  marriages 
are  utterly  unrighteous. 

Q.  Is  divorce  then  a  good  institution? 

A.  Neither  a  loveless  marriage,  nor  the  divorce  of  peo- 
ple held  in  a  loveless  marriage,  is  good.  Divorce  is  a  sor- 
row to  mankind;  but  when  it  is  the  only  alternative  to  a 
marriage  that  has  become  loveless,  it  is  the  lesser  of  two 
evils. 

Q.  //  then  neither  a  loveless  marriage  nor  divorce  is 
good,  how  shall  marriage  be  made  a  thing  of  love  and 
perpetuity? 

A.  Marriage  can  be  made  a  thing  of  love  and  perpe- 
tuity, only  if  the  husband  and  wife  resolve  to  maintain 
watchcare  continually,  and  by  constant  compromises  one 


150  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

unto  the  other,  to  blend  their  natures  and  so  keep  love 
from  dying. 

Q.  Is  an  unbroken  'marriage  preferable? 

A.  Unbroken  marriages  are  always  preferable,  provided 
love  is  a  dweller  in  that  home. 

Q.  What  is  the  change  that  The*  Revolution  makes  m 
art  ? 

A.  The  Revolution  is  changing  art  from  fine  art  to 
applied  art. 

Q.   What  is  meant  by  fine  art? 

A.  Fine  art  is  that  which  is  decorative  without  being 
useful. 

Q.   What  is  applied  art? 

A.  Applied  art  is  that  wherein  useful  things  are 
wrought  into  a  shape  of  beauty. 

Q.  How  can  applied  art  come  to  pass? 

A.  Applied  art  can  come  to  pass  only  when  the  work- 
ers are  free  and  thus  are  permitted  to  be  artists ;  finding 
in  one  and  the  same  task  self-support  and  self-expression. 

Q.  Which  will  beautify  the  world,  fine  art  or  applied 
art? 

A.  Applied  art.  Fine  art  is  for  the  leisure  class.  But 
applied  art  means  the  beautifying  of  the  work  and  the 
lives  of  the  workers. 

Q.  What  is  the  change  that  The  Revolution  is  making 
in  the  realm  of  education? 

A.  The  Revolution  is  changing  education  from  a 
preparation  for  a  life  of  leisure  to  a  preparation  for  a  life 
of  joyous  work. 

Q.  What  will  this  demand,  as  to  the  training  the 
schools  shall  give? 

A.  It  will  demand  that  the  schools  shall  train  people 
for  creative  labor  either  with  the  hand  or  with  the  mind 
or  with  both,  instead  of  training  people  away  from  labor, 
as  much  of  the  education  now  trains  them. 

Q.  How  is  The  Revolution  changing  statecraft? 

A.  The  Revolution  is  changing  statecraft  by  making 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  151 

government  a  thing  of  and  by  and  for  the  workers,  instead 
of,  as  at  present  a  thing  of  and  by  and  for  the  well-to- 
do. 

Q.   What  does  that  mean  as  to  politics? 

A.  It  means  that  politics  is  a  necessary  field  of  activity 
for  every  member  of  the  working  class. 

Q.  Name  again  the  departments  of  life  that  are  changed 
by  this  social  revolution? 

A.  The  home,  art,  education,  statecraft,  and  industry. 

Q.  What  is  the  fundamental  cause  of  the  social  revolu- 
tion that  is  thus  changing  life  so  profoundly? 

A.  The  fundamental  cause  is  twofold:  First,  the  in- 
dustrial change  that  is  coming  to  pass  by  machines,  sup- 
planting hand  labor.  And  second  the  advent  of  science. 

Q.  What  is  meant  by  the  first  change  —  machine  in- 
dustry? 

A.  Machine  industry  means  that  hand  labor  is  for  the 
most  part  gone.  But  machinery  is  a  thousand  fold  more 
expensive  than  the  old  hand  tools.  Therefore  workers  no 
longer  own  their  tools  as  they  did  in  the  former  age. 

Q.  What  has  happened  by  this  loss  of  the  ownership 
of  his  tools  by  the  workman? 

A.  This  loss  of  the  ownership  of  his  tools,  has  made  the 
workman  the  chattel  slave  of  the  man  who  owns  the  ma- 
chine. He  who  owns  the  means  whereby  I  earn  my  daily 
bread,  owns  me. 

Q.  What  then  is  the  cure  for  this  industrial  slavery? 

A.  Ownership  of  the  machinery  is  alone  the  cure. 
Whereby  the  workers  shall  once  more  own  the  tools  they 
work  with. 

Q.  How  is  this  industrial  change  bringing  to  pass  a 
revolutionary  era? 

A.  This  industrial  change  is  bringing  to  pass  a  revolu- 
tionary era,  because  the  workers,  awakening  to  the  fact 
that  they  are  slaves,  are  banding  together  to  socialize  the 
ownership  of  the  machinery.  This  uprising  of  labor 
means  the  downfall  of  the  leisure  class,  that  formerly 


152  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

dictated  laws  for  the  home,  for  art,  and  for  education  and 
for  statecraft. 

Q.  In  what  way  has  science  become  the  other  factor  in 
introducing  the  folk  upheaval? 

A.  Science  has  become  the  other  factor  in  introducing 
the  folk  upheaval,  by  revealing  the  economic  root  of  all 
history. 

Q.   What  is  meant  by  the  economic  root  of  history? 

A.  It  means  that  in  all  ages  the  working  class  has  been 
the  important  factor.  Thus  the  history  of  the  world  will 
have  to  be  rewritten  from  the  point  of  view  of  labor,  in- 
stead of  as  at  present  from  the  point  of  view  of  leisure. 

Q.  Does  this  mean  that  biblical  history  will  also  have  to 
be  rewritten  from  this  point  of  view? 

A.  Yes,  biblical  history  will  also  have  to  be  rewritten 
from  this  economic  point  of  view. 

Q.  What  is  this  materialistic  conception  as  applied  to 
biblical  history  called? 

A.  It  is  called  modern  biblical  scholarship. 

Q.   What  is  another  name  for  it? 

A.  The  higher  criticism. 

Q.   What  is  the  higher  criticism? 

A.  It  is  a  scientific  study  of  the  way  the  bible  came  to 
be  written. 

Q.  What  is  the  bible  as  reinterpreted  by  scientific 
scholarship? 

A.  The  bible  as  it  is  thus  reinterpreted,  is  the  record  of 
an  industrial  people  called  the  Jews  to  maintain  their 
freedom  against  the  oppression  of  masterclass  empires 
from  without  and  of  a  masterclass  forming  within. 

Q.   Who  was  Moses? 

A.  Moses  was  the  organizer  of  the  brickmakers  in  the 
brickyards  of  Goshen  in  Egypt. 

Q.   What  did  he  do? 

A.  He  stirred  in  them  a  sentiment  of  self-respect, 
whereby  they  refused  any  longer  to  be  the  slaves  of 
Pharaoh,  and  went  forth  in  search  of  industrial  freedom. 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  153 

Q.  Where  did  they  go? 

A.  They  went  to  a  land  in  Western  Asia  called  Pales- 
tine, and  there  set  up  an  industrial  nation  called  the 
Jews. 

Q.  Did  the  working-class  nation  thus  set  up  mamtam 
its  freedom  forever? 

A.  No.  Some  of  the  Jews  became  rich  and  formed  an 
owning  class,  which  began  to  enslave  their  fellow  country- 
men. 

Q.   Who  then  arose  to  protect  the  poor  of  the  nation? 

A.  Statesmen  arose,  commonly  called  prophets. 

Q.   Who  were  some  of  the  prophets? 

A.  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Amos,  Hosea,  and  others. 

Q.  Did  these  men  have  an  easy  time? 

A.  They  had  a  most  difficult  time.  They  were  treated 
with  neglect  and  with  persecution,  much  as  agitators  are 
treated  to-day. 

Q.   Who  was  Jesus? 

A.  Jesus  was  a  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  a  village  in  Gali- 
lee, in  the  land  of  Palestine. 

Q.  How  long  did  he  work  m  a  carpenter  shop? 

A.  He  worked  in  the  carpenter  shop  until  he  was  about 
the  age  of  30,  when  he  became  an  agitator. 

Q.  Why  did  he  not  continue  as  a  carpenter  all  of  his 
life? 

A.  Because  of  the  coming  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in- 
vading his  nation. 

Q.   What  was  the  Roman  Empire? 

A.  The  Roman  Empire  was  an  alliance  of  the  master- 
class in  all  of  the  countries,  against  the  working  class  in 
all  of  the  countries. 

Q.   What  were  the  workers  under  Roman  rule? 

A.  Under  Roman  rule  the  workers  were  slaves. 

Q.   Why  was  the  Roman  Empire  formed? 

A.  The  Roman  Empire  was  formed  in  order  that  the 
owning  class  in  all  of  the  countries  could  merge  their 
separate  armies  into  a  united  military  force,  that  could 


154  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

be  sent  in  its  entire  strength  to  put  down  an  uprising  of 
the  slaves  in  any  country. 

Q.  Was  the  extension  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  Pales- 
tine welcomed  by  the  people? 

A.  It  was  not  welcomed  by  the  people  but  it  was  wel- 
comed by  the  Jewish  millionaires  in  Jerusalem. 

Q.  Why  did  the  Jewish  workers  refuse  to  welcome  the 
Roman  Empire? 

A.  They  refused  to  welcome  the  Roman  Empire,  be- 
cause it  meant  their  degradation,  from  free  workers  to 
slaves. 

Q.   Was  Jesus  also  in  this  danger  of  slavery? 

A.  Yes,  the  iron  collar  of  slavery  was  riveting  about  his 
own  neck. 

Q.   What  did  he  do? 

A.  When  the  Roman  invasion  had  become  unendurable, 
he  left  his  carpenter's  bench,  surrounded  himself  with 
twelve  other  workmen,  who  were  called  apostles,  and 
started  forth  to  arouse  the  people  against  the  Roman 
peril. 

Q.  Did  he  succeed  in  arousing  the  people? 

A.  Yes,  he  was  greatly  successful.  The  common  peo- 
ple heard  him  gladly. 

Q.  Did  all  in  the  Jewish  nation  hear  him  gladly? 

A.  No.  The  millionaires  in  Jerusalem  hated  him  and 
sought  his  life. 

Q.  What  was  the  event  that  brought  upon  him  their 
greatest  hatred. 

A.  His  cleansing  of  the  Temple  in  Jerusalem. 

Q.  What  was  this  cleansing  of  the  Temple? 

A.  The  Temple  was  the  Capitol  building  of  the  nation. 
It  was  in  the  possession  of  a  band  of  robber  nobles,  who 
from  that  as  a  center  pillaged  the  people  by  unjust  taxa- 
tion ;  and  in  return  for  the  support  of  the  Roman  Armies 
in  this  pillaging,  permitted  the  Roman  conquerors  to  an- 
nex the  nation. 

Q.  What  did  Jesus  do? 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  155 

A.  Entering  Jerusalem  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  his 
working  class  followers,  he  went  into  the  Temple  and 
drove  out  those  pillagers. 

Q.   What  did  they  do? 

A.  They  formed  an  immediate  conspiracy  against  him. 

Q.   Was  this  conspiracy  sue  cess  fid? 

A.  Yes.  They  caught  him  one  Thursday  night  when 
the  people  were  asleep  and  rushed  him  to  death  early  the 
next  morning,  before  the  people  had  heard  of  it,  and 
could  come  to  his  rescue. 

Q.  Was  it  then  the  Jewish  nation  that  put  Jesus  to 
death? 

A.  No.  It  was  a  band  of  renegade  Jewish  millionaires 
in  league  with  the  Roman  invaders,  that  put  Jesus  to 
death. 

Q.  Who  sentenced  Jesus? 

A.  Pilate  the  Roman  Governor,  at  the  request  of  the 
Jewish  robber  nobility,  gave  the  death  sentence. 

Q.  In  Pilate's  court,  who  were  those  who  shouted 
against  Jesus,  "  Crucify  Him  "? 

A.  They  were  a  crowd  of  court  hangers-on,  who  were 
coached  by  their  rich  employers  to  make  this  demonstra- 
tion. 

Q.  How  was  Jesus  put  to  death? 

A.  By  crucifixion. 

Q.   Was  this  the  Jewish  method  of  capital  punishment? 

A.  No.  The  Jewish  method  of  capital  punishment  was 
by  stoning  to  death. 

Q.  Of  what  people  then  was  it  the  form  of  capital  pun- 
ishment? 

A.  With  the  Roman  people.  Crucifixion  was  Rome's 
method  of  putting  rebellious  slaves  out  of  the  way. 

Q.  What  happened  after  the  death  of  Jesus? 

A.  After  the  physical  death  of  Jesus  his  spirit  still 
animated  his  followers.  And  they  went  throughout  the 
world,  apostles  of  social  revolution;  preaching  an  over- 
throw of  the  world  whereby  the  masters  at  the  top  should 


156  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

be  dethroned  and  the  workers  be  in  the  seats  of  power. 

Q.  Did   they  meet   with  opposition? 

A.  Yes.  First  the  Jewish  millionaires  in  Jerusalem 
sought  to  stamp  out  the  Revolution.  Then  the  Roman 
authorities  took  up  the  task. 

Q.  In  Rome  where  did  this  persecution  of  the  early 
Christian  revolution  take  place? 

A.  In  the  Coliseum. 

Q.  In  what  form  was  the  persecution  inflicted? 

A.  The  Christian  revolutionists  were  put  to  death  in  the 
Coliseum  by  fire  and  by  sword  and  by  crucifixion  and  by 
wild  beasts. 

Q.  Did  this  persecution  stamp  out  the  movement? 

A.  No.  The  death  of  a  martyr  raised  up  others  to  take 
his  place.  Thus  the  movement  spread. 

Q.  How  then  was  the  revolution  finally  put  down? 

A.  It  was  put  down  when  a  Roman  citizen  by  the  name 
of  Paul  annexed  himself  to  the  movement  and  reinterpreted 
the  life  of  Jesus  from  that  of  a  workingman  into  the  career 
of  a  mystical  personage  aloof  from  the  economic  facts  of 
life. 

Q.  Did  Paul  have  opposition  in  thus  reinterpreting  the 
work  and  message  of  Jesus? 

A.  He  had  much  opposition  from  Peter  and  the  other 
Galilean  workingmen  with  whom  Jesus  had  surrounded 
himself  from  the  beginning. 

Q.   Which  side  in  this  controversy  finally  triumphed? 

A.  After  200  years  of  struggle,  the  school  of  thought 
started  by  Paul  vanquished. 

Q.   What  happened  then? 

A.  Christianity  having  become  a  system  of  philosophy 
instead  of  a  social  revolution,  was  accepted  by  the  Ro- 
man Empire  and  became  the  official  religion.  The  Ro- 
man Empire  then  transformed  itself  into  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church. 

Q.  Is  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  founded  on  Jesus? 

A.  No.     It   is   founded  on   the  Roman  Empire  which 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  157 

killed  Jesus. 

Q.  What  is  the  Social  Revolution  of  our  time  in  its 
deeper  phase? 

A.  The  Social  Revolution  of  our  time,  is  the  rediscovery 
of  this  economic  basis  beneath  the  religion  of  the  bible. 

Q.  Does  the  Social  Revolution  destroy  religion? 

A.  No.     It  renews  and  revitalizes  religion. 

Q.   What  is  true  religion? 

A.  True  religion  is  democracy  touched  with  emotion. 

Q.   What  is  meant  by  democracy? 

A.  Democracy  is  self-rule,  as  distinguished  from  rule 
from  without. 

Q.  When  we  die,  do  we  die  as  a  dog  or  a  horse,  and  pass 
from  existence? 

A.  No.  They  who  serve  the  cause  of  human  freedom 
are  conquerors  over  death.  They  enter  the  realm  of  the 
immortals. 

Q.  What  is  another  name  for  this  realm  of  the  immor- 
tals? 

A.  Another  name  is  heaven. 

Q.  Is  heaven  a  place? 

A.  No,  heaven  is  not  a  place. 

Q.   What  then  is  it? 

A.  Heaven  is  that  spiritual  order  which  overhangs  the 
world  of  sense  and  with  which  the  higher  self  in  each  of  us 
is  continuous. 

Q.  Does  the  Social  Revolution  destroy  the  idea  of  God? 

A.  No.  The  Social  Revolution  gives  to  the  world  a 
true  idea  of  God. 

Q.   What  is  the  true  God? 

A.  The  true  God  is  the  power  not  ourselves  that  makes 
for  freedom. 

Q.   What  is  another  name  for  God? 

A.  The  name  for  God  in  the  bible  is,  The  River  of  Life. 

Q.   What  is  this  River  of  Life? 

A.  It  is  the  totality  of  all  the  heroic  spirits  that  have 
ever  lived. 


158  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

Q.  Does  this  River  of  Life  increase  with  the  passing  of 
the  years? 

A.  Yes.  Each  new  heroic  life  that  is  lived  upon  earth 
flows  into  God,  and  finds  therein  its  immortal  continuance. 

Q.  Does  this  heaven  or  God  that  overlays  the  world  of 
sense,  speak  to  us  by  outward  audible  sound? 

A.  No.  It  speaks  to  us  with  the  inner  voice,  whose 
other  name  is  conscience. 

Q.  Did  this  God  we  worship,  create  the  universe  out  of 
nothing? 

A.  The  universe  has  always  been  here. 

Q.   What  then  is  the  relation  of  God  to  the  Universe? 

A.  God  is  the  industrial  leader  of  the  human  race  in 
rebuilding  the  universe  out  of  chaos  into  a  cosmos. 

Q.   What  is  chaos? 

A.  A  chaos  is  disorder. 

Q.   What  is  a  cosmos? 

A.  A  cosmos  is  what  the  universe  will  be,  when  the  dis- 
order has  been  changed  into  beauty  and  orderliness. 

Q.  In  making  the  universe  over  from  chaos  into  cosmos, 
does  God  proceed  by  miracles? 

A.  No.  Miracles  are  the  interruption  of  natural  law; 
and  science  teaches  that  there  are  no  interruptions  of  nat- 
ural law. 

Q.  How  then  does  God  proceed  in  his  efforts  to  rebuild 
the  universe? 

A.  He  proceeds  by  working  through  human  beings, 
operating  in  the  inner  parts,  their  mind  and  their  heart. 

Q.   What  are  some  other  names  for  God? 

A.  The  other  names  for  God  are,  the  Great  Com- 
panion, The  Most  High,  The  Unseen  Comrade,  The  Mas- 
ter of  the  Democracy,  The  Lord-of-the-Uprising-of-La- 
bor,  The  Foe  of  Stagnancy,  The  Stirrer-up  of  the  people. 

Q.  What  is  this  Unseen  Power  trying  to  do  for  the 
earth? 

A.  He  is  trying  to  establish  his  heaven  upon  earth. 

Q.  What  is  earth  at  present? 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  159 

A.  The  earth  at  present  is  the  abode  of  a  disorderly 
and  uncivilized  mass  of  people,  fighting  each  other  in  a 
strife  after  material  goods. 

Q.  Is  such  a  strife  necessary? 

A.  It  is  not  necessary.  The  earth  produces  enough 
food,  clothing  and  shelter  for  all. 

Q.  Why  then  do  all  the  people  clash  one  against  the 
other  in  these  fierce  competitions? 

A.  It  is  because  they  have  not  been  taught  the  true  re- 
ligion. 

Q.   What  is  the  true  religion? 

A.  The  true  religion  is  fellowship,  whereby  under  the 
leadings  of  the  Great  Companion,  all  the  members  of  the 
human  race  shall  become  a  united  band,  conquering  the 
elements  and  building  a  world  whose  riches  shall  be  owned 
by  all  the  people  in  common. 

Q.  What  is  another  name  for  such  a  world? 

A.  Another  name  for  such  a  world  is,  the  Cooperative 
Commonwealth. 

Q.   What  does  cooperative  mean? 

A.  Cooperative  means  a  state  of  society  where  people 
work  with  and  for  each  other,  rather  than  a  competitive 
state  of  society  wherein  each  works  for  himself. 

Q.  Are  all  the  people  of  the  earth  eager' for  this  co- 
operative commonwealth? 

A.  No.  The  idle  class  is  fighting  every  attempt  to 
establish  the  commonwealth. 

Q.   Why  are  they   thus  fighting  it? 

A.  Because  in  the  commonwealth  they  will  be  put  to 
work. 

Q.  Is  work  a  curse? 

A.  No.     Work  is  not  a  curse.     It  is  a  blessing. 

Q.   Why  then  do  the  idle  object  to  work? 

A.  Because  of  the  false  education,  whereby  they  have 
been  taught  that  leisure  and  not  labor  is  the  goal  of  hu- 
man striving. 

Q.   What  then  is  to  be  done  if  this  idle  and  privileged 


160  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

class  oppose  The  Commonwealth? 

A.  The  Commonwealth  must  be  established  against  their 
opposition. 

Q.  How  can  the  workers  establish  the  commonwealth 
against  this  opposition? 

A.  By  standing  together  in  solidarity. 

Q.   What  is  another  word  for  this  clash  of  interest? 

A.  Another  word  for  it  is  the  class  struggle. 

Q.   What  is  the  class  struggle? 

A.  The  class  struggle  is  the  fight  of  the  workers  to 
establish  the  Cooperative  Commonwealth  upon  earth, 
against  the  leisure  class  who  wish  to  preserve  their  pres- 
ent comfortable  position  of  privileged  idleness. 

Q.  Is  it  our  duty  to  take  part  in  the  class  struggle? 

A.  It  is  our  duty  to  take  part  in  the  class  struggle  on 
the  side  of  the  workers. 

Q.  On  which  side  is  God  in  this  class  struggle? 

A.  God  is  on  the  side  of  the  workers,  and  is  vehemently 
against  the  idlers. 

Q.   What  is  a  social  climber? 

A.  A  social  climber  is  a  person  born  among  the  com- 
mon people,  who  climbs  out  of  it  into  a  position  of  com- 
fort and  security  among  the  leisure  class  at  the  top. 

Q.  Is  a  social  climber  a  noble  figure? 

A.  A  social  climber  is  an  ignoble  figure,  hated  by  God 
and  man. 

Q.  Does  this  mean  that  we  must  not  strive  to  attain 
power  and  influence? 

;,-  A.  Power  and  influence  are  good,  if  so  be  that  we  still 
Iteep  comradeship  with  the  common  people,  and  use  our 
power  and  influence  on  their  side  in  the  class  struggle. 

Q.   What  is  the  masterclass? 

A.  The  masterclass  are  those  few  who  own  the  bulk  of 
the  land  and  buildings  and  machinery  and  produce  of  the 
earth. 

Q.  In  taking  sides  in  class  struggle  against  the  master- 
class, do  we  hate  the  masterclass? 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  161 

A.  We  hate  the  system  on  whi<jh  a  masterclass  is  based, 
but  we  do  not  hate  individuals  in  the  masterclass. 
Q.   Why  do  we  not  hate  individuals? 
A.  Because  individuals  in  the  masterclass  are  not  per- 
sonally responsible  for  the  system.     No  change  of  them 
individually  would  avail.     The  system  must  be  changed. 
We  war  not  against  personalities,  but  against  principle. 
Q.   What  is  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution? 
A.  The  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  is  a  band  of 
men  and  women,  who  have  signed  the  following  covenant: 

I  enlist  under  the  Lord  of  the  bloodred  banner, 
to  bring  to  an  end  a  scheme  of  things  that  has  en- 
throned Leisure  on  the  back  of  Labor,  an  idle  class 
sucking  the  substance  of  the  poor.  I  will  not  be  a 
social  climber,  but  will  stay  with  the  workers  in  class 
solidarity,  till  class  shall  have  been  done  away  in 
Fellowship's  glad  dawn.  I  will  seek  recruits  for  the 
Church  of  the  Revolution,  unto  the  overthrow  of 
present-day  society  and  its  rebuilding  into  comrade- 
ship. 

Q.   What   is    the   bloodred   banner   mentioned   m   that 
covenant? 

A.  It  is  the  banner  of  the  International  Host  of  Free- 
dom. 

Q.  7*  it  bloodred  because  it  seeks  to  shed  blood? 
A.  No.     It  is  the  bloodred  banner  of  brotherhood ;  and 
is  red  because  red  is  the  common  color  of  the  blood  of  all 
races  and  tribes  and  nations  on  the  face  of  all  the  earth. 
Q.   What  does  the  Revolution  Church  strive  to  do? 
A.  It  sings  the  folk  upheaval,  and  grows  a  Socialism  of 
the  heart. 

Q.   What  is  meant  by  a  Socialism  of  the  heart? 
A.  A  Socialism  of  the  heart  is  an  enthusiasm  for  hu- 
manity and  a  zeal  for  fellowship,  implanted  in  the  thoughts 
and  habits  of  each  individual,  in  order  that  the  socialism 
of  the  ballot  box  may  be  reenforced  and  beautified. 
Q.   What  is  the  object  of  the  Revolution  Church? 


162  LETTERS  FROM  PRISON 

A.  The  object  of  the  Revolution  Church  is  to  gather  up 
the  spiritual  unrest,  and  turn  the  times  to  fellowship. 

Q.   Why  is  there  spiritual  unrest  to-day? 

A.  Because  the  established  religions  have  lost  their 
power. 

Q.  How  does  the  Revolution  Church  give  to  the  world 
once  more  a  religion  of  power? 

A.  By  connecting  the  life  spiritual  with  the  life 
economic. 

Q.  What  is  meant  by  connecting  the  life  spiritual  with 
the  life  economic? 

A.  It  means  that  the  idealism  and  aspiration  of  the 
human  soul  shall  express  itself  in  bettering  the  world  in 
which  we  live  and  the  society  of  which  we  are  a  part. 

Q.  What  is  the  prevailing  form  of  spirituality  in  the 
established  churches? 

A.  It  is  a  spirituality  that  is  unconnected  with  material 
things. 

Q.  What  is  the  prevailing  principle  in  the  radical  move- 
ments of  our  time? 

A.  It  is  of  a  materialism  unconnected  with  spiritual 
power. 

Q.  Which  of  these  two  forms  is  correct? 

A.  Neither  is  correct;  spiritual  power  without  a  ma- 
terial objective,  and  a  material  objective  without  spiritual 
power  to  inspire  it,  are  equally  helpless. 

Q.  Can  you  point  to  an  example  of  their  helplessness? 

A.  Yes ;  the  war  of  the  nine  nations,  now  raging  in  Eu- 
rope. Materialistic  Socialism  as  found  in  Germany  was 
not  courageous  enough  to  oppose  the  war.  The  worldly 
religion,  as  found  in  the  churches,  also  was  not  courageous 
enough  to  oppose  the  military  spirit. 

Q.  Which  then  was  to  blame  for  the  war? 

A.  Both  materialistic  socialism  and  unmaterialistic 
Christianity  were  at  fault. 

Q.   What  tlien  is  needed? 

A.  There  is  needed  a  union  of  the  two,  spirituality  and 


LETTERS  FROM  PRISON  163 

socialism.  Now  they  are  sundered,  as  a  body  without  a 
soul  and  a  soul  without  a  body. 

Q.  Where  is  this  union  of  the  material  and  the  spiritual 
side  to  be  found? 

A.  In  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution. 

Q.  Does  the  Church  of  the  Social  Revolution  commit 
the  mistake  of  established  churches  in  developing  a  reli- 
gious life  separated  from  this  world? 

A.  No.  It  seeks  a  religious  life  that  shall  express  it- 
self in  terms  of  this  world. 

Q.  What  is  another  illustration  of  this  union  of  the  ma- 
terial and  the  spiritual? 

A.  An  illustration  of  it  is  a  bird,  which  cannot  fly  if 
either  wing  is  cut  off.  Both  a  person  who  lacks  the  spirit- 
ual, and  a  person  who  lacks  the  material  vision,  is  lop- 
sided; and,  like  a  bird  with  only  one  wing,  cannot  fly. 

Q.  Is  the  Church  of  the  Revolution  necessary  then  in 
our  time? 

A.  It  is  very  necessary.  From  no  other  quarter  comes 
the  light ;  here  only  is  the  blending  of  the  material  and  the 
spiritual,  which  is  needed  to  make  a  balanced  man  and  a 
perfect  social  order. 

Q.  Is  it  our  duty  then  to  belong  to  this  Church? 

A.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  public  spirited  man  and 
woman,  boy  and  girl,  to  belong  to  this  church,  and  to  work 
for  its  welfare  and  extension.  To  the  end  that  the  folk 
upheaval  may  be  wrought  in  sweetness  and  in  majesty, 
till  the  Lord-of-the-uprising-of-labor  shall  be  enthroned 
over  all  the  earth  and  the  people  be  established. 


14  DAY  USE 

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